Integrated marketing communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Integrated marketing communication - Essay Example The major strength of the company is its brand name. In the recent past the brand was declared as ‘the world’s favorite airline’. The company provides wide range of services to its customers such as food services, entertainment options including movies, TV games and music. The flight service being a global airline, offers year round low fare flights along with full services on a worldwide network (Kotipalli, â€Å"Strategic Management Report on British Airways†). British Airways affected employees’ strike that affected the successful operation of the company. The dispute involved the British Airways Management and the Unite Trade Union over various issues such as working conditions and pay. The effect of the crisis had been tremendous leading to long wait by the passengers at the airports. The airline had to retrain other airline employees in order to work as flight attendants and lease fleets from other airlines. During the strikes the analysts expected that those would cost the company about millions of pounds and it was further estimated that this would certainly hurt the airline brand as customers booked flights with the competitors. According to few economists, this strike would have a negative impact upon the world’s economy (Werdigier, â€Å"British Airways Strike Effect Disputed†). Being the marketing communication consultant the crisis management problem needs to be solved with the aim to repair the organizational reputation, sales performance and customs. Therefore, the appropriate strategy would be to use COSTAC framework in order to increase the efficiency and revamp the original position of the company. Before making an integrated marketing plan, it is essential to understand the context of the current situation. The context analysis helps to shape up certain things and explains the reason for such happenings. Here, five contexts namely internal, external, business, stakeholders and customers would be studied in detail in order to

The Political and Economical Differences Between the Spanish and English Colonies Essay Example for Free

The Political and Economical Differences Between the Spanish and English Colonies Essay The Spanish and English colonies both moved to North America seeking opportunities. The difference is that the Spaniards sought gold, while the English colonists sought freedom, religiously or otherwise. Therefore, the Spanish settlements in the Southwest and the English colonies in New England had very different approaches to both politics and economic development. The Spaniards had ventured to the United States region of America from their previous Latin America area. They expected to find the same success they did in South and Central America. However, they encountered a few problems that affected their type of political development. The main problem was that there was hardly any gold. The Spaniards had relied heavily on this income and that was mainly their point of being in the Southwest. Since they were mainly after gold and converting Native Americans to Catholicism, they brought over few women and had little to no permanent settlements. They were there to do their jobs, get rich with gold, and go home. Because of this, they had few issues with their government being autocratic. This means that the royal crown had overall control of all the colonial decisions. The crown kept tight control of the Spanish settlements because like I stated above, they were there to do their job, and therefore this form of political control worked for the Spanish. However, the autocratic type of government did not work for the English settlements. Many colonists came to America for religious freedom, and a new chance for a better life. They also brought over families. This allowed them to create permanent settlements with schools and churches and eventually new generations. The English settlers came primarily with joint stock companies and not sent by the crown, unlike the Spanish. Therefore, the English colonies had established a form of self-government and later had the early beginnings of a democracy with assemblies and several elected officials like governors in some select states. The Spanish had little economic development in their settlements. This was mainly because of their hunt for gold. That’s what they were spending all their time on so they couldn’t create a thriving trade and businesses started. That coupled with few natural resources led to this slow economic development that is vital to survival of colonies. In contrast to the Spanish, the English colonies created a flourishing trade and consequently had great economic development. Because families had moved and towns were set up, the colonies could establish complex businesses and figure out how best to use their land. The colonies used their resources to create a good lumbering, fur trade, and fishing industries, which again furthered their economic development. Simply put, the English colonies had greater economic development and the Spanish had a very different approach to their politics and governing. All of these differences stemmed from who travelled to the colonies and why.

Global Review Of Market Entry Strategies Economics Essay

Global Review Of Market Entry Strategies Economics Essay When a firm is going to explore a foreign market, the choice of the best mode of entry is decided by the firms expansion strategy. The main aim of every business organization is to establish itself in the global market. Thus, the process calls for developing an effective international marketing strategy in order to identify the international opportunities, explore resources and capabilities, and utilize core competencies in order to better implement the overall international strategies. The decision of how to enter a foreign market can have a significant impact on the results. Companies can expand into foreign markets via the following four mechanisms: exporting, licensing, joint venture and direct investment (Meyer, Estrin, Bhaumik, and Peng, 2008). All of them have their advantages for the firm to explore as well as disadvantages which must be considered by the firms top management. What entry mode that a multinational company chooses has implications for how much resources the company must commit to its foreign operations, the risk that the company must bear, and the degree of control that the company can exercise over the operations on the new market. (Zekiri and Angelova,2011, pp 576) 1.1.1 Global Review of Market Entry Strategies Taylor, Zou and Island (1998) conducted a study on a transaction cost perspective on foreign market entry strategies of USA and Japanese firms and concluded that several transactions costs affected the decision making of market entry mode for the US firms but did not affect the market entry mode for Japanese firms. Meyer, Estrin, Bhaumik, and Peng (2008) conducted a study on Institutions, Resources, and Entry Strategies in Emerging Economies to investigate the impact of market-supporting institutions on business strategies by analyzing the entry strategies of foreign investors entering emerging economies. The authors made three contributions, to enrich an institution-based view of business strategy (Oliver, 1997; Peng, 2003; Peng, Wang, and Jiang, 2008) by providing a more fine-grained conceptual analysis of the relationship between institutional frameworks and entry strategies. Secondly, they argued that institutions moderate resource-based considerations when crafting entry strategies and finally, by amassing a primary survey database from four diverse but relatively underexplored countries and combining such data with archival data, they extended the geographic reach of empirical research on emerging countries. Stiegert, Ardalan, and Marsh (1997) conducted a study on foreign market entry strategies in the European Union where the study utilized intra-firm, socio-cultural, geographical-proximity, and political-stability variables to explain bimodal foreign direct investment (FDI) patterns by agri-food and beverage multinational companies into and within the European Union. A logit framework incorporated a unique-count database of firm-level investment patterns from 1987-1998 and the results showed the 1992 structural changes under the Maastricht Treaty increased the probability of wholly owned FDI modes such as greenfields and buyouts, and also found that past modal strategies of firms, language barriers, and exchange-rate volatility all correctly explained modal investment patterns. The authors asserted that these results provide important contributions toward understanding modal investment strategies including the role of macroeconomic changes within a custom union. Czinkota Ronkainen (2003) carried out a study on the motivation factors for market entry and asserted that several factors results in firms taking measures in a given direction as in the case of internationalization. These are a variety of motivations both pushing and pulling companies to internationalize which are differentiated into proactive and reactive motivations. 1.1.2 Market entry strategies for Multinationals in Kenya Multinational corporations (MNCs) operate in a global environment unfamiliar in political, economic, social, cultural, technological and legal aspects. Increased competition among multinational corporations and the entry of other players in the Kenyan market necessitate the design of competitive strategies that guarantee performance. Creating strategies for coping with competition is the heart of strategic management which is critical for the long term survival of any organization. MNCs in Kenya have adopted a number of strategies including: better quality, excellent customer service, innovation, differentiation, diversification, cost cutting measures, strategic alliances, joint venture, mergers/acquisitions and not forgetting lower prices, to weather competitive challenges. Kinuthia (2010) suggests that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has risen in Kenya from the 1990s due to the liberalization of the economy. It is mainly concentrated in the manufacturing sector and is mainly Greenfield in nature. Most of FDI in Kenya is export oriented and market seeking. The most important FDI determinants are market size in Kenya as well as within the region, political and economic stability in both Kenya and its neighbours and bilateral trade agreements between Kenya and other countries. The most important FDI barriers in Kenya are political and economic instability in Kenya, crime and insecurity, institutional factors such as corruption, delayed licenses and work permits among other factors. According to the Financial Post (2010), well-established and hitherto dominant multinational companies in Kenya are suddenly finding themselves sailing in turbulent waters. The latest multinational to leave the scene with a bloodied nose is the 200-year-old Colgate Palmolive, a global business concern which begun in New York as a small soap and candle business. The list also includes, Johnson Johnson, Agip, Unilever, Procter Gamble, and recently, ExxonMobil, just to mention a few. The Financial Post (2010) suggests that majority of the multinationals who have so far relocated, shut down or downsized their operations consider Kenya as one of the least competitive investment destinations worldwide. Apart from the notoriously high cost of power in Kenya, difficulties in obtaining licenses and visas, inefficiencies at the Port of Mombasa and deteriorating infrastructure are among other non-tariff barriers to investment in this market. Financial Post (2010) notes that it is in the petro leum sector where the multinationals are finding it difficult to cope. A few years back, Agip shut down its pipes and sold out to BP Shell. BP sold it stake to Kenya Shell, a move that changed shareholding of BP Shell, which has been operating as a joint venture company. Recently, ExxonMobil sold its Kenya franchise to Tamoil, who will now take over the companys over 64 service stations countrywide. Ndegwa and Otieno (2008) conducted a study on market entry strategies for a transition country, Kenya, a case study that focused on mode of entry strategies that would be used by a Finnish firm, YIT Group to enter a developing country, Kenya. The focus was on motives to enter developing countries, the strategies used to enter developing countries, the factors influencing the decision of entry strategy, and finally problems facing companies entering developing markets experience. The study concluded that the most significant motive to enter developing countries is potential growth of the market, the most suitable entry mode strategy is joint venture, the most significant factor influencing the entry mode decision is the legal framework, and the largest problem experienced by companies investing in the country is bureaucracy. 1.1.3 Performance and non financial performance Performance Measures are quantitative or qualitative ways to characterize and define performance. They provide a tool for organizations to manage progress towards achieving predetermined goals, defining key indicators of organizational performance and Customer satisfaction. Performance Measurement is the process of assessing the progress made (actual) towards achieving the predetermined performance goals (baseline). Traditional, financially based performance measurement approaches have a number of serious drawbacks (Kaplan Norton, 1992). These include the element of outcome focus. Established financial indicators such as turnover and profit before tax are outcome indicators. Profitability measures the extent to which a business generates a profit from the factors of production: labour, management and capital. Profitability analysis focuses on the relationship between revenues and expenses and on the level of profits relative to the size of investment in the business (Gilbert and Whe elock, 2007). Four useful measures of firm profitability are the rate of return on firm assets (ROA), the rate of return on firm equity (ROE), operating profit margin and net firm income. The ROA measures the return to all firm assets and is often used as an overall index of profitability, and the higher the value, the more profitable the firm business. The ROE measures the rate of return on the owners equity employed in the firm business. It is useful to consider the ROE in relation to ROA to determine if the firm is making a profitable return on their borrowed money. The operating profit margin measures the returns to capital per dollar of gross firm revenue. Recall, the two ways a firm has of increasing profits is by increasing the profit per unit produced or by increasing the volume of production while maintaining the per unit profit. The operating profit margin focuses on the per unit produced component of earning profit and the asset turnover ratio (discussed below) focuses on the volume of production component of earning a profit (Crane, 2011). Net firm income comes directly off of the income statement and is calculated by matching firm revenues with the expenses incurred to create those revenues, plus the gain or loss on the sale of firm capital assets. Net firm income represents the return to the owner for unpaid operator and family labour, management and owners equity. Like working capital, net firm income is an absolute dollar amount and not a ratio, thus comparisons to other firms is difficult because of firm size differences (Gilbert and Wheelock, 2007). 1.1.4 Manufacturing Sector in Kenya Kenya has the biggest formal manufacturing sector in East Africa (UNIDO, 2008). This sector has grown over time both in terms of its contribution to the countrys GDP and employment. It is evident from these trends that the sector makes an important contribution to Kenyas economy (KAM, 2009). The average size of this sector for tropical Africa is 8 percent. Despite the importance and size of this sector in Kenya, it is still very small when compared to that of the industrialized nations (KIRDI, 2009). Awino (2007) and KObonyo (1999) argues that Kenyas manufacturing sector is going through a major transition period largely due to the structural reform process, which the Kenya government has been implementing since the mid-eighties with a view to improving the economic and social environment of the country. The manufacturing industry in Kenya can be classified under three main sectors, namely, the agro-based industrial sector, engineering and construction industrial sector and the chemical and mineral industrial sector (GOK Vision 2030). However, the three major classifications can still be categorized into two: (i) agro-based and non-agro-based (KObonyo, 1999). The agro-based industrial sector in Kenya consists of seven sub-sectors and provides the bulk (68 per cent) of value added from the manufacturing industry, (KAM, 2009). KObonyo (1999) argues that the agro-based industrial sector has developed on the basis of traditional domestic resource activities. The major challenges faced by this sector are related to the quantity, quality and price of raw materials mostly produced by small scale farmers. The seven sub-sectors that form the agro-based industrial sector are food processing, animal feeds, beverages and tobacco, miscellaneous food products, tannaries and leather products, woods and wood products and pulp and paper (Awino, 2007). 1.2 Problem Statement Mode of entry into an international market is the channel which organization that want to operate in international markets employ to gain entry to a new international market. The choice for a particular entry mode is a critical determinant in the successful running of a foreign operation. Therefore, decisions of how to enter a foreign market can have a significant impact on the results. However, it may seem that the use of particular strategies by international firms may yield higher growth and performance than others. There are several strategies that manufacturing firms can select from when they want to gain entry to a new international market such as exporting; licensing and franchising; strategic alliances; and wholly owned foreign subsidiaries. This study wants to investigate and indicate the particular modes of entry that manufacturing MNCs in Kenya use and of what value they are. Studies on the relationship between the choice of international market entry strategy and firm performance are abundant. These include Taylor and Zou (1999); Zekir and Angelova(2011) ; Chung and Enderwick (2001); Zand (2011); Sadaghiani, dehghan, and Zand (2011); and Mushuku(2006). There lacks conclusiveness on these studies about the choice of market entry strategy and firm performance. There exist glaring knowledge gaps as far as scarcity of local studies, context, conclusiveness and difference in opinions is concerned. This implies that there are scarce studies in developing economies such as Kenya. Studies on the choice of international market entry strategy and firm performance seem to concentrate on the developed and emerging countries which leave a knowledge gap for developing economies such as Kenya. There is a paucity/scarcity of studies on the marketing strategies techniques used by firms in Kenya and the researcher is not aware of any study that has been done on the influe nce of international market entry strategies on the performance of manufacturing multinationals in Kenya. This study therefore wishes to bridge this knowledge gap by assessing the influence of market entry strategies in manufacturing firms performance in Kenya. 1.3 Study Objectives The study attempts to achieve the following study objectives To identify the international market entry strategies by manufacturing multinationals in Kenya To establish the motive behind the choice of market entry strategies by manufacturing multinationals in Kenya To examine the influence of market entry strategies on the performance of manufacturing multinationals in Kenya 1.4 Significance of the study The study may be of use to management of manufacturing concerns in Kenya. This is because it will highlight the impact of choice of entry strategy to growth of a firm. Managers may therefore use these results to select the optimal strategies that would optimize growth of multinationals. The study will aid managers of prospective firms, and also those other people that want to go into other markets. The study will also provide ample information to those firms already in the market with strategies that are not working for them. The study results may be used by the implementation panel for vision 2030. Perhaps, they can craft a policy based on the study results that would increase the impact of entry strategies on growth of multinationals operating in Kenya. This would consequently lead to higher productivity and achievement of vision 2030 goal of annual economic growth of 10%. The study may also be a valuable addition to literature review and scholars of international business management, business strategy and growth. 1.4 Scope of the study There are several strategies that manufacturing firms can select from when they want to gain entry to a new international market such as exporting; licensing and franchising; strategic alliances; and wholly owned foreign subsidiaries. The study will restrict itself to market entry strategies and their influence on performance of multination manufacturing organizations. The scope of this study is the manufacturing sector. The manufacturing industry in Kenya can be classified under three main sectors, namely, the agro-based industrial sector, engineering and construction industrial sector and the chemical and mineral industrial sector (GOK Vision 2030). However, the three major classifications can still be categorized into two: (i) agro-based and non-agro-based (KObonyo, 1999). Kenyas main industries are food and beverages processing, manufacture of petroleum products, textiles and fibers, garments, tobacco, processed fruits, cement, paper, pyrethrum products, engineering, wood products, pharmaceuticals, basic chemicals, sugar, rubber, and plastics products. CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction This chapter reviewed the various theoretical concepts that have been explored in the study. Specifically, the study reviewed the concept of multinationals, market entry strategies and organizational performance. The empirical review addressed the various studies that have been done on the area. 2.1 Theoretical Review This section elaborates on various concepts that are being used in the study. For instance definitions of multinationals, market entry strategies and performance were given. 2.1.1 Multinationals A multinational corporation (MNC) or multinational enterprise (MNE) is a corporation enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation. They play an important role in globalization (Pitelis, and Sugden, 2000). Various attempts have been made in literature to capture the true richness of MNCs with definitions and concepts. Perlmutter (1969) for instance, used a taxonomy which was based on management styles namely geo-, poly- and ethnocentric to measure a firms degree of multinationality. Porter (1986) distinguished between multidomestic and global firms based on the configuration and coordination of the firms value chain. The framework developed by Prahalad and Doz (1987) offers a rather context oriented classification based on the nature of business, differentiating between global, multi-focal and local firms. Probably Bartletts and Ghoshals (1989) four-fold typology of multinational, international, global and transnational companies has been the most influential and extensive one. The typology constructed, inter alia, included, environmental, corporate, subsidiary, control and human resource characteristics. Kinuthia (2010) suggests that Foreign firms in Kenya since the 1970s have invested in a wide range of sectors. Most notably they played a major role in floriculture and horticulture, with close to 90 percent of flowers being controlled by foreign affiliates. In the Manufacturing sector FDI has concentrated on the consumer goods sector, such as food and beverage industries. This has changed in the recent years with the growth of the garment sector because of African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA). Of the 34 companies involved in AGOA 28 are foreign most of them concentrated in the Export Processing Zones (EPZs). FDI is also distributed to other sectors including services, telecommunication among others. 55 percent of the foreign firms are concentrated in Nairobi while Mombasa accounts for about 23 percent, thus Nairobi and Mombasa account for over 78 percent of FDI in Kenya. The main form of FDI establishment has been through the form of green fields establishments and Kenya has in total more than 200 multinational corporations. The main traditional sources of foreign investments are Britain, US and Germany, South Africa, Netherlands, Switzerland and of late China and India (UNCTAD, 2005). 2.1.2 Market Entry Strategies International market entry modes can be classified according to level of control, resource commitment, and risk involvement (Hill, Hwang and Kim, 1990). For example, in a study of the international operations of service firms in the United States, Erramilli and Rao (1993) classify market entry modes into two categories based on their level of control-full-control (i.e. wholly owned operation) and shared-control mode (i.e. contractual transfer or joint venture). The classification system adopted by Kim and Hwang (1992) is three fold: licensing, joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries. Kim and Hwang believe that these methods provide three distinctive levels of control and require different levels of resource commitment. Kwon and Konopa (1993) indicate that each foreign market entry mode is associated with advantages and disadvantages in terms of risk, cost, control, and return. Their study was designed to examine the impacts of a series of determinants on the choice of foreign production and exporting adopted by 228 U.S. manufacturing firms. Agarwal and Ramaswami (1992) suggest that the most commonly used entry modes are exporting, licensing, joint venture and sole venture. These methods involve varying levels of resource commitment. When multinational enterprises (MNE) plan to expand overseas, they face several entry modes. Root (1994) defines an international market entry mode as an institutional arrangement that makes possible the entry of a companys products, technology, human skills, management, or other resources into a foreign country. Entry modes can be classified into three categories: Export entry mode, contractual entry mode and investment entry mode (Root, 1994). Expansion into foreign markets can be achieved via the following mechanisms: Exporting, Licensing,â‚ ¬Ã‚   Franchising,â‚ ¬Ã‚   Joint Venture, Direct Investment (Kim and Hwang,1992; Agarwal and Ramaswami,1992; Root, 1994; Erramilli and Rao,1993). These are explained below; 2.1.1. Exporting Exporting is the marketing and direct sale of domestically-produced goods in another country. Exporting is a traditional and well-established method of reaching foreign markets. There is no need for the company to invest in a foreign country because exporting does not require that the goods be produced in the target country. Most of the costs associated with exporting take the form of marketing expenses. Therefore, exporting is appropriate when there is a low trade barrier, home location has an advantage on costs and when customization is not crucial (Kim and Hwang, 1992). 2.1.2. Licensing A license arrangement is a business arrangement where a licensor using its monopoly position and right such as a Patent, a Trade Mark, a design or a copyright that has exclusive right which prevents others from exploiting the idea, design, name or logo commercially. The licensee pays a fee in exchange for the rights to use the intangible property and possibly for technical assistance (Erramilli and Rao, 1993). 2.1.3. Franchising Franchising is a similar entry mode to licensing. By the payment of a royalty fee, the franchisee will obtain the major business know-how via an agreement with the franchiser. The know-how also includes such intangible properties as patents, trademarks and so on. The difference from the licensing mode of entry is that the franchisee must obey certain rules given by franchiser. Franchising is most commonly used in service industries, such as McDonalds, etc. (Hill, Hwang and Kim, 1990). 2.1.4. Joint Venture Joint ventures represent an agreement between two parties to work together on a certain project, Operate in a particular market, etc. Some of the main common objectives in a joint venture:â‚ ¬Ã‚  Market entry;â‚ ¬Ã‚  Risk and reward sharing;â‚ ¬Ã‚  Technology sharing and joint product development, etc. (Kwon and Konopa, 1993) 2.1.5. Foreign Direct Investment Foreign direct investment (FDI) is the direct ownership of facilities in the target country. It involves capital, technology, and personnel. FDI can be made through the acquisition of an existing entity or the establishment of a new enterprise. Direct ownership provides a high degree of control in the operations and the ability to better know the consumers and competitive environment, and the market in general. However, it requires a high level of resources and a high degree of commitment (Root, 1994). 2.1.6. Foreign Acquisition Acquisitions can be defined as a corporate action in which a company buys most, if not all, of the target companys ownership stakes in order to assume control of the target firm. Acquisitions are often made as part of a companys growth strategy whereby it is more beneficial to take over an existing firms operations and niche compared to expanding on its own. (Investopedia.com, 2011) 2.1.7. Green Field Entry Green field can be defined as a form of foreign direct investment where a parent company starts a new venture in a foreign country by constructing new operational facilities from the ground up. In addition to building new facilities, most parent companies also create new long-term jobs in the foreign country by hiring new employees (Investopedia.com, 2011). The main advantages of setting up a new company:â‚ ¬Ã‚  normally feasible, avoids risk of overpayment, â‚ ¬Ã‚  avoids problem of integration, Still retains full control. The main disadvantages of setting up a new company:â‚ ¬Ã‚  Slower startup, requires knowledge of foreign management, â‚ ¬Ã‚  high risk and high commitment We can conclude that acquisition is appropriate when the market is developed for corporate control, the acquirer has high absorptive capacity, and when there is high synergy, whereas Green field entry is appropriate when there is lack of proper acquisition target, in-house local expertise, and embedded competitive advantage (Agarwal and Ramaswami, 1992). 2.1.3 Organization Performance Organizational performance comprises the actual output or results of an organization as measured against its intended outputs (or goals and objectives). According to Richard et al. (2009) organizational performance encompasses three specific areas of firm outcomes: (a) financial performance (profits, return on assets, return on investment, etc.); (b) product market performance (sales, market share, etc.); and (c) shareholder return (total shareholder return, economic value added, etc.). Most organizations view their performance in terms of effectiveness in achieving their mission, purpose or goals. Most NGOs, for example, would tend to link the larger notion of organizational performance to the results of their particular programs to improve the lives of a target group (e.g. the poor). At the same time, a majority of organizations also see their performance in terms of their efficiency in deploying resources. This relates to the optimal use of resources to obtain the results desired. Finally, in order for an organization to remain viable over time, it must be both financially viable and relevant to its stakeholders and their changing needs. A fundamental debate in strategic management and international marketing research is questioning about the performance, especially when the companies involve in international performance (Florin and Agboei, 2004). An accurate understanding of the crucial link between international strategy and performance is especially important in the face of world markets that are increasingly global. Consequently, international marketing research has moved from being descriptive studying the differences between exporters and non-exporters to providing performance explanations (shoham and kropp, 1998). In todays complex business world, performance is an indispensable guide for any company analyzing its level of success, in both the domestic and international arenas. Assessing export performance is quite a complex task, as export performance can be conceptualized and operationalized in many ways. Broadly speaking, the literature considers three aspects of export performance: financial, strategic, and that of performance satisfaction (Lages and Montgomery, 2004). Although considerable progress has since been made, research remains underdeveloped. Defining and understanding performance is problematic, especially in terms of identifying uniform, reliable, and valid performance measures (Katsikeas, Leonidou and Morgan, 2000). Export performance is the dependent variable in the simplified model and is defined as the outcome of a firms activities in export markets. There are two principal ways of measuring export performance: economic (financial measures such as sales, profits, and market share) and noneconomic (nonfinancial measures relating to product, market, experience elements, etc.). Most background and intervening variables were associated with economic measures of performance, particularly export sales intensity (export-to-total sales ratio), export sales growth, and export profitability (Katsikeas, Leonidou and Morgan, 2000). Also, Export performance, a widely studied construct, refers to the outcomes of a firms export activities, althoug h conceptual and operational definitions vary in the literature (Calantone, 2005) 2.2 Empirical Literature 2.2.1 International Market Entry Strategies by Multinationals International market entry modes can be classified according to level of control, resource commitment, and risk involvement (Anderson and Gatignon, 1986; Erramilli and Rao, 1993; Hill, Hwang and Kim, 1990). For example, in a study of the international operations of service firms in the United States, Erramilli and Rao (1993) classify market entry modes into two categories based on their level of control-full-control (i.e. wholly owned operation) and shared-control mode (i.e. contractual transfer or joint venture). The classification system adopted by Hill, Kim and Hwang (1992) is three fold: licensing, joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries. Hill, Kim and Hwang (1992) believe that these methods provide three distinctive levels of control and require different levels of resource commitment. Kwon and Konopa (1993) indicate that each foreign market entry mode is associated with advantages and disadvantages in terms of risk, cost, control, and return. Their study was designed to examine the impacts of a series of determinants on the choice of foreign production and exporting adopted by 228 U.S. manufacturing firms. Agarwal and Ramaswami (1992) suggest that the most commonly used entry modes are exporting, licensing, joint venture and sole venture. These methods involve varying levels of resource commitment. Based on the location of products produced, Terpstra and Sarathy (2000) divide market entry methods into three major categories-indirect exporting, direct exporting and foreign manufacturing. Many forms of market entry strategy are available to firms to enter international markets. One classification first distinguishes between equity and non-equity modes. Equity modes involve firms taking some degree of ownership of the market organizations involved, including wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures. Non equity modes do not involve ownership and include exporting or some form contractual agreements such as licensing or franchising (Wilkinson and Nguyen, 2003). Caves (1982) identified four basic ways to expand internationally, from the lowest to the highest risk: exporting; licensing and franchising; strategic alliances; and wholly owned foreign subsidiaries. Cateora and Graham (2002) stated there are six basic strategies for entering a new market: export/import, licensing and franchising, joint venturing, consortia, partially-owned subsidiaries, and wholly-owned subsidiaries.

SUCCESSFUL AFRICAN AMERICAN BUSINESS OWNER :: essays research papers

SUCCESSFUL AFRICAN AMERICAN BUSINESS OWNER DAVID STEWARD CEO & FOUNDER, WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY David Steward grew up in a Christian home in a small town of Clinton, Missouri. As a teen, he lived through the racially tense ‘60s, attending segregated schools, sitting in the balcony of the movies, and being barred from the public swimming pool. David doesn’t harbor any negative feelings about having to endure those days, especially since his mother warned him against becoming bitter and resentful. He literally lived on the other side of the railroad tracks, but learned that division doesn’t work. Though his family had few material possessions, David believes he inherited considerable wealth from his parents because they taught him what was important: treating people right. David recalled homeless people stopping by the house. â€Å"No one was ever turned away,† he said. â€Å"I saw faith in action.† David also remembers his mother giving her lat dollar to the church. He knew that it was seed to be sown with the expectation of a harvest. These principles of sowing and reaping have stayed with him his entire life. David always had a lifelong dream of owning his own business. It was a burning desire inside of him. After college, he spent ten years in sales for three Fortune 500 companies. As the senior accountant for a major corporation, David was awarded Salesman of the Year and was made a member of the company’s hall of fame. They presented an ice bucket with his initials engraved inside. David looked inside the bucket and realized that it was empty. This was a defining moment; he asked himself is this what he really wants out of life. At the time, David and his family were living paycheck to paycheck, but David had complete faith in God. It was clear in his mind that his belief in God, coupled with the desire to work hard to serve others, meant he was destined to succeed. After many years and five failed companies, he finally figured out the secret to success, ‘treat people right.’ He launched Transport Administrative Services in 1987. The company’s purpose was to provide online automated transportation audit services to seven major rail carriers. He later decided to diversify his business interest by capitalizing the start-up of World Wide Technology (WWT) in 1990 on a shoestring budget and 7 employees. He wanted to be part of one the greatest revolutions that ever hit history, the information stage.

Effect of Growth on Mung Bean Solution

Effect of Salt Solution on Mung Bean Growth Hypothesis: If the Mung Beans are watered with a higher salt solution, then less Mung Beans will sprout. John Murrell 9-18-12 Magnet Biology Introduction This experiment was done to test the effect of salt solution on mung bean growth. Generally when you grow mung beans you soak them in water for eight to twelve hours and then put them in a separate container to sprout. Since this experiment was not monitored every hour, and had limited resources, we could not soak the mung beans for that period of time.There are multiple ways to grow mung beans but since the experiment was to test the effect of different salt solutions, one particular way was chosen. Methods 1. Gather two paper towels and two petri dishes, no safety goggles or gloves will be required for this experiment. 2. Place a petri dish on a paper towel and trace the bottom of it so a circle is drawn. Do this twice on each paper towel so there are four separate circles drawn. 3. Sepa rate the top and bottom of each petri dish so they can each be used separately, creating four dishes. 4. Label the petri dishes: Distilled, . 5 solution, . 50 solution, and . 75 solution 5. Cut out the circles that were traced on the paper towel sheets. 6. Place one paper towel circle in the bottom of each dish. 7. Now take a graduated cylinder and place 20 mL of distilled water in it. 8. Pour the 20 mL of water on top of one of the paper towels in the dish so it can soak up the water. 9. Repeat step seven with a . 25, . 50, and . 75 salt solution. Be sure to put each one in a separate petri dish with a paper towel circle in it. 10. Place 20 mung beans in each petri dish; be sure to check that the mung beans are paced apart from each other. 11. Place the petri dishes on a counter and leave them there for five days. 12. Take measurements each day and record results. Results Table 1: Amount of Beans Sprouted Amount of Beans Sprouted| Day 1| Day 2| Day 3| Day 4| Day 5| Distilled Water| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| .25 Salinity| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| .50 Salinity| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| .75 Salinity| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| Figure 1: Conclusion Based on the results of this experiment, salt solution does not affect the growth of mung beans. However, there were several mistakes made in this experiment that would need to be corrected next time.One of them was taking the lid off of the petri dish and using it as a separate container. Doing this made the water and solution evaporate faster, and when it did evaporate it was just put out into the environment. If there was a top to the petri dish the water would have stayed in the dish and recondensed after evaporation. An alternative to this would have been keeping just two petri dishes with the top and testing one salt solution against distilled water, or plastic wrap could have been put over each of the four separate dishes.Another mistake made was placing the dishes by a window. This allowed the sun to reach the dishes, which also caused the water and sol ution to evaporate faster. If this experiment is conducted again the petri dishes would be placed on a counter that is not by a window. The third and final major mistake made was placing twenty mung beans in each petri dish. This did not provide the space the mung beans needed to grow, and caused them to each have less water since they had to compete for it. This experiment neither proved nor disproved the hypothesis made.If this experiment is conducted in the future, with all the corrections established, the original hypothesis generated would still be used. This hypothesis would also be based solely on background information discovered about mung bean growth, since there was no data created from this experiment. References * http://www. ggfagro. com/books/UsefulDocs/sample%20manuscript_8-11. pdf * http://www. abc. net. au/science/surfingscientist/pdf/lesson_plan12. pdf * http://simple-green-frugal-co-op. blogspot. com/2010/01/grow-your-own-mung-bean-sprouts. html

Performance Management at Vitality Health Essay

Situational Analysis: Introduction: Vitality Health Enterprises initially started its business as Vitality by importing small quantities of cosmetics from Japan. Initially it started marketing in its neighbourhood and to local organizations. Slowly it started expanding and in 1989 it changed its business model by establishing its own manufacturing facility in the US. Its business continued to grow into various markets as it leveraged its unique supplier connections and technological superiority. Its venture of acquiring HerbaPure Nutraceuticals helped it expand into a new domain of health care and Vitality became Vitality Health Enterprises. It continued its growth by expanding into new geographies until 2008 when its growth began to stagnate. This led to the formation of its new business strategy where a committee was appointed to review the policies and methods of tracking the performance goals of all non-sales and non-executive employees of the company. Drawbacks of previous PMS: PMS scale had 13 different levels of ratings. This scale posed a problem as managers avoided either the pain of evaluating or offending their sub ordinates by giving average rating of ‘B’ or ‘C’ to most of the employees. They avoided giving ‘A’ even to the top performers with a fear of upsetting the spirit of teamwork among others. Therefore the top performers lacked motivation to continue performing better as they received similar kind of merit based incentives and rewards as their less productive co-workers. Also there were flaws in the current methods used to measure performance. The compa-ratio takes into account the number of years an employee has worked with the company. Hence the tenure brings them with high incentives even though their performance wasn’t up to the mark. For example an employee with larger work experience at Vitality would be paid more when compared to other employee who had joined recently for the same output or sometimes even for a lesser output, which brought discrimination and dissatisfaction among the  employees. One advantage was that the compensation provided is 7-8% higher when compared to competitors. But the component of bonuses and variable pay was low in the current structure, which added to the disappointment of the high performers. Therefore even though turnover rate reduced at Vitality due to high compensation, there was turnover among the more productive scientists and product engineers as they moved to companies where their hard work and talents are rewarded better, which was a great loss to the company. Hence the very purpose of PMS that is identifying performers to reward them and non-performers to train them better or in the worst case steer them out was not achieved through this system. So a large section of the employee community wasn’t satisfied with the existing system. Also in a highly competitive market as personal care products, Vitality can’t afford to lose its top talent to its competitors. Additionally its product managers need continuous motivation to innovate and develop new products to withstand the competition. Hence there was a need for a coherent performance management system that held employees accountable for their actions and incentivized employee performance by offering compensations including salaries, bonuses and equity. So a new performance management system was launched. Problem Statement Was newly implemented performance management system in ‘Vitality Health Enterprises Inc.’ effective? Pros of Newly implemented PMS: The revised system is more apt to recognize highly contributing employees by strictly following the distribution model of performance rating. New PMS changed the absolute ranking to relative ranking system which helps to rank the employees based on relative performance basis. This eliminates a key problem of rewarding bulk of employees when their department was failing to meet development and production goals. This plan incorporated a new system of performance-related short and long term cash and equity bonus rather than relying only on salary increases. The newly designed system follows 4 point scale instead of 13 point scale which made the manager task easier in evaluation. Cons of Newly implemented PMS: Some employees were reluctant to perform their duties outside the job as those responsibilities were not in the review system. So they preferred only to work in the domains which were taken into consideration for their reward. Some managers felt that the new distribution system to be very rigid. High performing team need to come up with the targeted number of achievers even though they had many of them. On the contrary, the low performing team also had equal number of top achievers. The new PMS uncovered some managerial dissembling. Because managers allotted ‘Not Rated’ ranking to new members and saved the higher rankings for their veteran employees irrespective of their performance. Hence the new member in team might be de motivated. Some managers were reluctant in differentiating between their employees and allow any unfamiliar person to evaluate them. Because of this true performer might miss his/her rewards and incentives. Some managers rotated the highest ranking between their employees from one year to the next. So the objective of developing new evaluation system was unfulfilled. Recommendations The new performance management scored well in the survey which collected response from all the affected employees. Around 54% of the employees were happy with the new system whereas nearly a third (31%) preferred the old system. The employees who were happy with the new system might be high performers whereas the low or mid performers might have not been happy with the new system and were recommending old system. Managers were not happy with the rigid system because it added complexity in grading and might have been forced to give detailed explanation to offended employees. However there were few issues with the new system, which can be addressed with the measures listed below: Modification of the pay structure by incorporating performance benefits tied to the below: Organization Building: Employees need to contribute for the growth of the organization beyond their core responsibility. This will help in organizational growth and trickle-down effect to the bottom of the organization. So their pay structure will also involve a component that corresponds whether the company as a whole is performing well or not. Team Building: The performance of the team or  division will also impact the rewards being distributed. If a division does well, all its members get benefitted and vice versa Individual Efforts: Like before, individual component will also weigh for performance appraisal. This will have a different weight age for different job descriptions, as per the requirement. For example: A marketing employee will have a higher component of organization building than a R&D scientist who will have a higher individual component E.g. Say a R&D scientist has a base salary of ‘x’ and the weights allocated to organization building, team building and individual efforts as w1, w2 and w3 with per component increase of $p, $q and $r. Hence pay policy line= x+ (w1*p) + (w2*q) + (w3*r) Mixed component of absolute and relative: Employees will be graded against one another only when they are able to fulfil their core responsibilities and perform to a certain benchmark level. As the managers used to assign a Not Rated ranking to any employee who had been in the group for less than a year, regardless of actual performance. Not Rated ranking should be removed and appraisal should be conducted without grading for employees who have not completed a year. Pay structure of Managers: Managers have secondary responsibility of fulfilling staffing needs, their effectiveness in training, development and employee relations. The weight age of secondary component should be increased in such a manner so that they don’t delegate this responsibility to HR, which will be possible if their pay structure will be linked to it. Differential rating points for different divisions: Different division should have a different weight age system of organization growth, team growth and individual efforts in their pay structure and it should be appropriately distributed to all divisions so that rewards are not concentrated in a particular division. Feasibility of recommendation The company is growing at a good rate and hence any recommendation should be careful analyzed for its feasibility. Having different weight age for KRA’s of each division is difficult to formulate and can also lead to conflict between divisions which can lead to loss in synergy across the organization. All the divisions should be kept in confidence while formulating KRA’s and their respective weight ages. As the company is growing, the divisions will also increase and hence this plan’s sustainability is questionable. Pay  structure modification can be met with resistance from employees who will not be ready to accept too many variables in their salary. However educating employee about the benefits of this modification can solve this issue. Creating a separate process for employees who had completed less than a year in a team can easily eliminate not Rated ranking.