Antigone Essays (580 words) - Greek Mythology, Ancient Greece

Antigone Antigone The debate over who is the tragic hero in Antigone continue on to this day. The belief that Antigone is the hero is a strong one. There are many critics who believe, however, that Creon, the Ruler of Thebes, is the true protagonist. I have made my own judgments also, based on what I have researched of this work by Sophocles. Antigone is widely thought of as the tragic hero of the play bearing her name. She would seem to fit the part in light of the fact that she dies in doing what is right. She buries her brother without worrying what might happen to her. She "Takes into consideration death and the reality that may be beyond death" (Hathorn 59). Those who do believe that Antigone was meant to be the true tragic hero argue against others who believe that Creon deserves that honor. They say that the Gods were against Creon, and that he did not truly love his country. "His patriotism is to narrow and negative and his conception of justice is too exclusive... to be dignified by the name of love for the state" (Hathorn 59). These arguments, and many others, make many people believe the Antigone is the rightful protagonist. Many critics argue that Creon is the tragic hero of Antigone. They say that his noble quality is his caring for Antigone and Ismene when thier father was persecuted. Those who stand behind Creon also argue that Antigone never had a true epiphany, a key element in being a tragic hero. Creon, on the other hand, realized his mistake when Teiresias made his prophecy. He is forced to live, knowing that three people are dead because of his ignorance, which is a punishment worse than death. My opinion on this debate is that Antigone is the tragic hero. She tries to help her brother without worrying about what will happen to her. She says, "I intend to give my brother burial. I'll be glad to die in the attempt, -if it's a crime, then it's a crime that God commands" (Sophocles 4). She was also punished for doing what was right. Her epiphany came, hidden from the audience, before she hung herself. Creon's "nobleness" of taking in young Antigone and Ismene is overshadowed by his egotistical nature. He will not allow justice to come about simply because he wants to protect his image. He says, "If she gets away with this behavior, call me a woman and call her a man" (Sophocles 13). These elements prove that Antigone is the tragic hero. Creon, understanding his ignorance may lead one to believe that he is the true protagonist. But, if you define the word protagonist you would find that a protagonist is one who is a leader or supporter of a cause. Antigone is in support of her own actions in the burial of her brother Polyneices. She entrusts that she is doing what the Gods want, contrary to the belief of Creon. Many readers and critics may say Creon suffered greator hardships. Some may say Antigone never had an epiphany. Who would understand it if their own brother were left to the birds and dogs. There would be no rational thinking involved in a act like this. These are arguments envolved in deciding who is the tragic hero of Antigone. Critics, to this day, still argue about who is the tragic hero of Antigone. Many say that Antigone is the heroin. Others say that it is Creon. My research favors Antigone as the perfect protagonist. No matter who the reader sides with, it is agreed by most that there is a valid argument either way, in light of the fact that they both endure great hardships.

J. Edgar Hoover Essays - English-language Films, Free Essays

J. Edgar Hoover Essays - English-language Films, Free Essays J. Edgar Hoover For nearly half a century J. Edgar Hoover was one of the most powerful officials in the Federal government of the United States. As head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1924 until his death in 1972, he was the nations chief law enforcement officer. His intimate knowledge of politicians and government operations made him a man to be feared by elected officials, and none of the eight presidents under whom he served dared fire him. J.Edgar Hoover was born on January 1, 1895, in Washington D.C. He attended George Washington University and earned a degree in 1917. In 1919 he became assistant to Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer in the Department of Justice. It was Palmer who instigated the post World War I red scare, an anti-Communist hysteria that led to the deportation of many aliens. Hoover was put in charge of the deportations. When Hoover became director of the Bureau in 1924, he quickly formed an elite force of powerful law enforcement officers. He enhanced the FBIs fame by capturing many gangsters, bank robbers, and other lawbreakers. After World War II he waged a relentless fight against internal subversion. The 1970s often criticized Hoover for his authoritarian methods. He died in Washington, D.C., on May 2, 1972. In the rest of the paper I will explain more in depth of how J. Edgar Hoover rose to power and why he is considered one of the most corrupt men to ever hold a government position. It is not very difficult to figure out the most outstanding characteristic of J. Edgar Hoover. Out of all of his characteristics, the one that truly stands out is that he was extremely powerful. J. Edgar Hoover is the most famous law enforcement officer that the United States has ever known. J. Edgar Hoover began his adult life at the bottom of the ladder with a very limited amount of power. As he grew older and became more experienced his prestige and power skyrocketed. At the height of his prestige and power he was the most famous director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the history of the United States. One factor that helped J. Edgar Hoover gain more power, was that he had many connections with many important people (Summers 29). Another factor that aided J. Edgar Hoover in his rise to power was the knowledge he had about people (Kessler 449-450). This meant that he could control people, or in other words, blackmail them (Summers 38-39). The third reason why J. Edgar Hoover became such a powerful individual is that he was very intelligent and shrewd (Summers 25). These three factors all contributed to forming one of the most powerful men the world has ever known. J. Edgar Hoover knew many important people that held many important positions. Hoover received his first government job thanks to a close family friend by the name of Bill Hitz (Summers 29). Hitz was a judge and considered the President and Supreme Court Justice Brandeis among his close friends (Summers 29). Another individual who helped Edgar along the way was his boss at the Department of Justice, George Michaelson (Summers 29). Bruce Bielaski, a senior official, recalled how - on the trolley to work one day in 1917 - he found himself talking shop with his neighbor, mail room chief George Michaelson (Summers 29). Michaelson dropped the name of a young lawyer he had sorting mail, one of the brightest boys around (Summers 29). You dont need anybody with brains doing that, said Bielaski (Summers 29). If you want him, Michaelson replied, you can have him (Summers 28-29). That conversation on the trolley was a fatal one for America (Summers 29). Bruce Bielaski was Director of the Bureau of Investigation, direct forerunner of what we know now as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Summers 29). Bielaski would now join the growing list of people that would help Hoover on his quest to power. Bielaski did not forget the young man that his neighbor had recommended - though he did not bring Edgar into the Bureau (Summers 29). Instead he told John Lord OBrian, head of the War Emergency Division, about Edgar (Summers 29). Many

Interdiction for experiments Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Interdiction for experiments - Assignment Example A conventional cell culture media generally consist of vitamins, glucose, well balanced amino acids, serum as a source of growth factors, hormones as energy source for the regulation of cell cycle (Waymouth, 1972). Osmolality and pH are the other two aspects which govern the environment of cell culture. pH 7.4 has been proved as the optimum pH to grow mammalian cells in culture. Although small deviations exist. The culture medium acts as a buffer and inhibits the pH change. As bicarbonate and dissolved CO2 has an impact on the pH of the medium, atmospheric CO2 also plays a crucial role in maintaining the pH of the medium. Therefore CO2 is used form a exogenous source and in the incubator it is generally maintained at 5%. For most of the culture conditions the temperature is maintained at 37Â °C for normal growth of the culture cells. Finally, osmolality is maintained in culture condition since at 37Â °C the culture media can be evaporated. Hence to prevent the evaporation of the cu lture media, humidifying condition is maintained by keeping water in the incubator. A failure in controlling the culture environment leads to contamination of culture, unhealthy cells, more apoptotic cells and other abnormal morphologies (Waymouth, 1970). What is the fluorescence-activated cell sorting, why it is important? Flow cytometry or fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS) is generally used to examine the microscopic particles like cells. First the cells are suspended in a fluid and then a stream of fluid containing the cell suspension is passed over a laser beam. This results in light scattering and fluorescence emission. The next step is the filtration and collection of the scattered and emitted lights which are then converted to digital signals. These signals are then analyzed by appropriate software. Thus the fundamental basics of flow cytometry comprises of fluidics (cell suspension and the hydrodynamic focusing of the fluid), optics (laser beam, light scattering and fluorescence emission) and electronics (conversion to digital values and output through computer). By FACS one can analyze multiparametric physical and chemical behavior of cells. It allows the analysis of thousands of particle in a second. The stream of fluid is hydrodynamically focused and the beam of light usually a laser is pointed towards the stream of fluid. Two different types of detectors are placed to detect the scattered light. One is in line with the laser beam known as forward scatter (FSC) and many detectors are in perpendicular with the laser known as side scatter (SSC). FSC is attributed to the size of the particle where as the SSC refers to the granularity that is the internal complexity of the particle (Ormerod 2000). Fluorescence-activated cell sorter is generally used in biomedical science which includes the fields like pathology, transplantation, hematology, immunology, molecular biology, signal transduction. Various parameters can be ascertained by FACS. Some of which are- cell cycle and tumor ploidy (El-Naggar 2004), immunophenotyping, ion flux, membrane potential, intracellular protein staining, cell proliferation, pH changes (Rabinovitch and June 2000), cell viability, cell sorting, chromatin structure, redox state, total protein, lipids, surface charge, enzyme activity, gene expression and DNA degradation (Darzynkiewicz et al 1997) What is the Immunoprecipitation Immunoprecipitati

Service Quality in Higher Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Service Quality in Higher Education - Essay Example This paper illustrates that the three surveys conducted used various statistical measures such as QFD technique, and some multidimensional matrixes. Some of the research instrument included the QFD model, the QFD matrixes, and the data got analyzed by use of the statistical packages for social scientists (SPSS). Some of the processes that got included in these studies included delivery of teaching, the design of study programs, assessment of students, management of the administrative services and research activities. Others include career orientation services, student admission, and hiring, development and evaluation of the teaching personnel. The conclusive statement got made student’s study program, assessment of students and the teaching process are important aspects of improving education quality and the introduction of quality management in the higher education systems. Service quality in higher learning has emerged as one of the key most fundamental factors that drive ma ny academic institutions towards realizing their set objectives, goals, and educational aims. There are some processes and methodologies adopted by some learning institutions for the main purpose of upgrading the quality of their education services as well as academic provisions. By undertaking this procedure as well as the policies meant for improving their education quality and standards, these institutions have gotten in a position to meet nearly all requirements set by the ISO 9001:2008. There are some strategies taken to improve service quality in higher education, among them including the application of quality function deployment towards upgrading the standards in higher education. In this case, it entails the concerns from the employer’s perspective. It involves the use of the use of various paradigms and investigation procedures which gets implemented for the purpose of purpose of coming up with solutions for realizing high academic qualities.

Hyperthermia Treatment for Cancer Research Paper

Hyperthermia Treatment for Cancer - Research Paper Example We have been able to find out that hyperthermia can become an effective method in the treatment of cancer with a little careful administration because a number of studies have shown that the survival rate and the rate of responsibility towards other drugs of cancer increases when they get combined with hyperthermia. The building blocks of our body are cells. Cancer takes place when there is an abnormal growth of cells in our body. The causes of cancer are generally genetic change or a defect in the chromosome of the genes. When the cell in our body multiplies rapidly and forms a lump it is called cancer or malignant tumor. Even at such an age of advancement, it is still difficult to decipher the true causes of cancer but a variety of research carried out in this field has given some guidance with regard to the causes of cancer and its treatment. (Dollinger et al, 2002, p. 3). Effective cancer treatment needs a combination of multiple medical specialties. The scopes of new capacities in the treatment of cancer are always expanding and the specialists are constantly adopting those techniques to treat the disease successfully. A treatment process should be such that it incorporates maximum benefit in the removal of the disease. (Chabner and Longo, 2005, p.1). The aim of this discussion is to find out the effectiveness of hyperthermia as a method to treat cancer. At the same time, we will also find out as to why hyperthermia is most effective. When the application of hyperthermia becomes most effective is also one of the objectives of our study. Last but not the least we will also look at the limitations which hyperthermia has in the treatment of cancer. This discussion has mostly been qualitative in nature.  

Analysis of the E-brokerage Industry

Analysis of the E-brokerage Industry Executive Summary The financial brokerage industry has undergone dramatic changes worldwide in the last decade, due to the rise of the Internet. E-brokerage brought huge opportunity to the industry as it introduces enormous amount of on-line traders but at the same time posted serious threat as it open up the market to new competitors. In this thesis, we investigate past and current challenges the brokerage industry faced. From our literature review, we studied the impact of online trading to the brokerage industry and the online traders, and proposed solutions pinpointed to the facts we found. We studied the challenge the brokerage industry faced from the perspectives of strategy, marketing and technology and carried out strategic analysis using value chain and framework of five forces by Michael E. Porter. A small scale survey was conducted to collect local people attitude towards online/mobile trading and we used the data collected to justify the information we found during our literature review. F inally, we proposed a basket of suggestions for the brokerage industry in various aspects including product enhancement, customer education, partnership, differentiation, customer segmentation and more. An in-depth interview with a local broker firm was organized to value our suggestions, their feedback are positive. Introduction The tough challenge among e-brokerage industry is still going on and in fact, it is getting even more furious. The situation was more rigorous during bearish market after the burst of IT foams, SAR outbreak and the recent financial tsunami. The strategy the brokerage firms adopted to handle the challenges they faced determine who will survive the competition and stay in the market. Losers will soon be squeezed out of the market. This is especially true for small to median size local brokerage firms who are now facing new competitors like direct banks and oversea online trade provider like E-Trade. Confronted with growing competition, old-guard brokers are being forced to restructure and re-focus their market offerings. Various strategies were adopted, some brokerage firms seek to maintain their lead in value-added services through a focus on knowledge/advise more financial planning and investment advice rather than transactions -processing trades. Other firms attempted to comprehen d how to offer on-line services without alienating their brokers, to minimize channel conflict. The purpose of this article is to analysis the current e-brokerage practices and device new service directions and enhancement to existing products to increase competence of our local brokerage industry. We will first present the evolution of security trading in Hong Kong and characteristic of different types of brokerage firms and customers. From our literature review, we found that online trading exerted great impact on both brokerage industry and online traders. For brokerage firms, they faced vigorous competition due to new competitors, reduced customer loyalty and market fragmentation due to low entry barrier. While illusion of knowledge and control, lack of personal advice and overwhelmed by information were the hurdle online traders faced. We have presented the strategic challenge faced by the brokerage industry and analysis their strategy using value chain and framework of five forces algorithm. We have devised a basket of suggestions and discussed with a brokerage firm the f easibility to comprehend our research. Financial Broker Industry In Hong Kong Evolution of security trading in Hong Kong The ultimate goal of a well-functioning stock market is to bring together all possible buyers and sellers, so that the market price reflects the combined preferences of all participants. The history of securities trading in Hong Kong can be traced back to 1866. The present Sock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEx) was established as a result of the unification of four exchanges during the big market boom in 1986, while the first stock exchange began its operation in 1891. Exchange System Architecture Computerized trading system was first introduced on 2 April 1986 and in 1993 the exchange launched the Automatic Order Matching and Execution System (AMS), which was replaced by the third generation system (AMS/3) in October 2000. AMS/3 is the core system used to serve securities trading which has significant enhancements in central market functions, open connectivity and system capacity as compared with AMS/2. AMS/3 supports multiple trading facilities for market access. Most of the participants developed their own Broker Supplied System (BSS) which interfacing with AMS/3 via the Open Gateway (OG) facility for greater control to the front-end solutions instead of the Multi-workstation System (MWS) by HKEx. The open connectivity of OG has made possible the large-scale automation of Participants operations, enabling Participants to offer new investor services and experience efficiency gains. In 2002, a new generation of the system, CCASS/3, was launched for clearing and settlement. MD S (Market Data Feed System) is the key system used for delivery of securities price data to about 60 local and international information vendors. HKATS (Hong Kong Futures Automated Trading System) is the electronic order matching system operated for the derivatives market. Advancement in information technology, especially the Internet, is revolutionizing traditional commerce. Obviously the securities industry, and in particular the on-line brokerage, is at the forefront of this revolution. Here in Hong Kong, retail online trading as a proportion of total retail investor trading continued to grow in 2008/09, reaching 43 per cent from 39 per cent in 2007/08. Its contribution to total market turnover was 10 per cent, up from 7 per cent in 2007/08. For stock options, retail online trading contributed 23 per cent of total retail investor trading (up significantly from 15 per cent in 2007/08) and 2 per cent of product turnover (1 per cent in 2007/08). For other derivatives, retail online trading contributed 49 per cent of total retail investor trading and 18 per cent of total product turnover (up from 44 per cent and 15 per cent respectively in 2007/08). Types of Brokerage Firm The basic function of a brokerage firm is to execute buy and sell orders for clients. Traditionally these firms have offered the investigation of the quality and the possibilities of investing in a variety of investment products. It is still accustomed for brokerage firms to offer information about possible investments free of charge. This activity of bringing free of charge stock investment reports is one of the main tools that are utilized by brokerage houses to compete against other firms. To investors, it continues to be an important service. However, with the bloom of communication technology, especially the Internet, more and more investors rated that investment reports as less important service. Instead, those investors preferred other types of services that charged less commission and service fee, by forfeiting those investment reports. In order to capture this vast diverse clientele, the brokerage industry segmented itself. After the restrictions in commissions were eliminat ed, several brokerages began to open up their doors as discount brokerage firms. At that time, brokerage firms were classified into two types: full service brokers and discount brokers. Full service brokerage firms continued to offer informative stock reports and a level of service much higher than other brokerage houses. They looked for purchasing and selling opportunities for clients and offering more customer and portfolio advisory service than was available from discount brokers. Discount brokerage houses, on the other hand, only dedicated themselves to execute orders for clients with minimal services. These differences in services and philosophies led to great differences in commission costs. It was evident that these differences were an important factor in the return of an investment. Type of customers in brokerage industry In Hong Kong customers of brokerage firm can be divided into three typical categories: l Prestige Group: These are customers with large amount of capital put in to the brokerage firm for investment. They have granted total authority to the brokerage firm to execute trading decision on behalf of them. Although they are minority in terms of the customer base of brokerage firm, they contribute a great portion of revenue to the brokerage firm. l Middle Group: Customer of this group usually trade through account agent of the brokerage firm. They utilities financial information, report and analyzing tools provided by the brokerage firm to make trading decision. Account agent will also actively contact these customers whenever they see an investment opportunity fit for them. l Basic Group: Customer mostly uses service of brokerage firm to maintain account balance and execute trading order on the own. Although multiple channels are supplied to them, they mostly adopt on-line trading as their first choice of trading media. Although the first two groups of customers contribute quite a large portion of the revenue of brokerage firm, we will concentrate our research on the third group for two reasons. First, there is a clear trend that this group of customer is increasing in a fast pace. Second, by investing and improving the on-line system, the other group will also be benefited. Literature Review Online-Brokerage Simply put, â€Å"On-line brokerage† can be defined as selling of securities which encompasses equity like stocks and warrants and derivatives like bonds, mutual funds etc, on the Internet. Although traditional banks and brokers also provided online trading after year 2000, new entrants like direct banks and new brokers offered a genuine e-commerce business model. Direct banks are internet-only banks or virtual banks. These banks were designed without a traditional banking infrastructure with physical branches. This cost-saving advantage enabled many of them to offer savings accounts with higher interest rates, loans with lower interest rates and minimal management fee and commissions than most traditional banks. More and more customer joined in as online trade and a peak was hit on year 2000. At the same time, new competitors like traditional brokers and virtual banks joined in proactively by acquiring existing brokerage firm or using their own business model. At that time, t hen customer base and knowledge of the traditional institutions was still advantages for online trading enhancement. The strategy online brokers adopted was customers segmentation and directed their offer to the most preferred customer group, the active private investors, which allowed them to swiftly catch up the market. Compared with banks, absence of physical branches thus low overhead costs gave these internet brokers an advantageous in cost structure. They competed with each other rigorously to achieve the biggest market share in the shortest time frame to reach the break even point. The strategy to conquer and develop loyalty of new customers was invested massively in marketing. They also adopted a cut-throat commission rate to attract private individuals who were more sensitive to this cost of investment. The position of banks and traditional brokers in the brokerage business was deeply undermined by the pressure caused by these new entrants. Bloom of on-line trading For the first time ever, investors could, from the comfort of their own homes, accessed a wealth of financial information including breaking news developments and market data on the same terms as market professionals did. In addition, on-line brokerage provided investors with tools to analyze this information, such as research reports, calculators, and portfolio analyzers. Finally, on-line brokerage enables investors to act quickly on this information. The technological and regulatory barriers that gave traditional brokerage and securities companies edges were rapidly becoming extinct. First, new provider quickly gained access to the market by leveraged on the use of Internet technology. Without expensive branch networks and labor-intensive advisory services, new competitor like direct banks and new online brokerage firms were able to process retail clients orders in relatively low cost. Second, the bull markets in year 2000 attracted large number of new online customers. For example , lot of local residents became online investors and started to hold security when frequent and gigantic scale IPO activity were taking place during 2006. These new customers welcomed the new internet investment style that encompassed vast amount of free of charge real time information, enhanced market transparency, convenience and low commission. Together with the rising share prices in bull market atmosphere, these new customer, in particular, heavy traders quickly got accustomed to doing online trade. The Internet also made other comparisons easier. For example, it increased price competition for products for which price comparison was previously more difficult. New information applications enabled investors to compare the quality of trade execution provided by different brokerages and thus extend the trading costs that investors consider beyond commissions. Companies scrambled to create viable strategies that balance many priorities. Typical considerations included: Should they defend their existing customer base or enter into new customer segments? Grow their existing business or expand into new products? Acquire, partner or go alone? Basically, companies were competing not only to offer different and better products and services, but to design robust, lucrative business models that took advantage of emerging forms of electronic commerce. Electronic commerce the facilitation of exchange of value over computer networks fundamentally changed the brokerage business in part by increasing the velocity of financial services [1]. Impact of on-line brokerage Hurdle on brokerage firm Rigorous competition With the advancing Internet technology, investors had became less reliant on stockbrokers for trade execution or obtaining research information as such services were readily available on the Internet. In addition, the Internet was a convenient and efficient channel for doing stock trade transactions and for providing information support to investors. Indeed, the trend of self-investing led to the proliferation of Internet brokerages around 2000, offering trading services on the Internet at very low commission rates compared to using traditional brokerages. Reduced customer loyalty Lower transaction costs online led many investors to e-brokerages and away from traditional brokers to place their trades Another concern was that since investors feel that they can distinguish between the good and bad advice that they find on the Internet, they therefore were not be willing to continue to pay a financial planner solely for their expert opinion. This was in part due to the information illusion discussed in next section: illusion of knowledge and control, where investors feel that since they have access to so much information that they had no need to pay for such service and can do it better on their own. Reduced customer-broker cohesiveness Before on-line trading is prevalent, a single stock trade typically involves multiple telephone conversations between a customer and a broker. The broker may take the opportunity to reinforce the personal relationship with the customer by discussing pros and cons of the trade or offer tailor-made investment package. On the contrary, on-line traders are more on their own. Together with the convenience to switch broker, the loyalty of the customer to the brokerage firm is largely weakened. Although transactions are the bread and butter of brokerage companies, brokerage firms were also strived to developing client relationships in order to provide total solution to their customers. The income by providing strategic planning, advisory services, financial advices, margin loan and other client services are also vital to brokerage companies.. Market fragmentation Market fragmentation occurs when too many competitive suppliers enter an active or new market. It happened starting from 1998 and peaked around 2001, when online trading started to take off and attracted many different competitors. They all aimed attract on-line investors and to achieve the largest possible market shares by all means, for example, by giving them some extra bonuses. However, the sudden downturn of the market quickly turned a lot of these new investors to passive customers, if not entirely retired, due to lack of knowledge and experience. This phenomenon was even more obvious after market started to plunge beginning at 2001. As a matter of fact, it is too risky for e-brokers to over-rely on commission as the main source of revenue. After all, the demand for brokerage services highly depends on investment atmosphere of stock market. The number of on-line executed orders during bullish and bearish market varies significantly. These large variation experts high risk for those who base their income on commission. In order to safeguard possession of active traders during both bullish and bearish market, it is very important to educate them and foster a correct investment culture. Lower entry barrier The Internet changed how information is delivered to investors and the ways in which investors can act on that information. On-line brokerage provide a effective and convenient access media between customers and the brokerage firm, the unit cost of operations is much reduced. It had lowered both the fixed and marginal costs of producing financial services, thus enabling newer, smaller companies to challenge established providers of these services. On-line brokerage firms, such as E*Trade, are among the most vivid and successful financial service firms to provide on-line financial advice, research tools, and financial information that emerged in the last decade. These e-commerce firms transformed the way traditional services were delivered and offered a vast assortment of new services. Hurdle on customer Investors in general and on-line investors in particular now make decisions in a very different environment than investors in the past. They have access to far more data. They often act without personal intermediaries. They can conduct extensive searches and comparisons on a wide variety of criteria. Although the quantity they can produce may be large, it is the quality that matter. As a consequence, they trade more actively, more speculatively but less profitably than before. On-line trader stress heavily on commission and management cost when choosing broker firm to use. However, there are other unobservable costs that are unaware by them: information-processing costs, information illusion, illusion of control, frequent trading behavior, and the lack of personal advice. Information-processing costs Information-processing costs are the costs that online investors sustain before they actually make a transaction and it is defined by the time and energy that the investor expands trying to reach an investment decision. Because of the huge volume of information found on the Internet that it can take investors a lot of extra time to find, sort, and analyze all of the relevant information. This in turn can out-weigh the benefits of online trading for some investors because they might not be able to afford the opportunity. In fact, the overwhelmingly huge amount of information available on the Internet scales many investors away, let alone their validity or intentional hoax. Illusion of knowledge The proposition that more information leads to better decision-making is intuitively appealing. But the truth of the proposition depends on the relevance of the information to the decision and on how well-equipped the decision maker is to use the information .The vast amount of on-line investment data available will enable investors to confirm their prior beliefs and may lead them to become overconfident in their ability to pick stocks and other securities. Faster feedback may focus investors attention on recent performance. Psychology shows that when people who initially disagree on a topic are given arguments on either side of the issue, they become further polarized in their beliefs. They are impressed by the arguments with which they already agree and they discount opposing views. Not only are people more impressed by arguments they favor, but they actively seek out confirming evidence. For this reason, investors are more likely to visit chatrooms or forum of like-minded investor s. If controversies ensue, they are likely to be convinced by those with whom they already agree. Investors who believe that additional information makes them better investors are unlikely to seek out or attend to evidence that indicates otherwise. Thus, on-line investors are likely to become overconfident. They may believe that they have more ability to perform tasks such as stock-picking than they actually do. In theoretical models, overconfident individual investors trade more actively and more speculatively than they otherwise would, hold under diversified portfolios, have lower expected utilities, and contribute to increased market volatility. In an empirical study of investors at a large discount brokerage who switched from phone-based to personal computer-based trading by Barber and Odean, they find that after going on-line, investors tend to trade both more actively and more speculatively. Illusion of control This illusion results when investors think that because they have access to so much information via the Internet that they have an advantage over the entire market and this can lead them to make bad investment decisions. These investors then have an exaggerated sense of control over the outcomes of their investments. Frequent trading is another cost associated with online investing. Low transaction costs can encourage frequent trading and day-trade strategy according to Konana, Menon and Balasubramanian. As an example, in Singapore, 71.1 per cent of online investors say that they trade more frequently than they did prior to online trading (Teo, Tan, Peck, 2004). Researches show that most of the on-line traders adopt short term trading strategy: a risky strategy rather than the believed buy and hold strategy. The Internet also seems likely to change what information investors focus on, because it reduces the cost of some kinds of information more than others. For instance, the Intern et especially facilitates comparisons of real time data, and thus has changed investors focus by emphasizing the importance of speed and immediacy. While the serious individual investor of a decade ago may have checked stock positions once a day in the morning paper, casual investors now may check theirs several times an hour. Many more investors pay attention to short term-even intraday- return trends than ever before. Worse still, many firms advertise their ability to deliver real time data or to execute investors orders rapidly, making the situation even worse. Lack of personal advice The downside of investing online is the lack of personal advice from those in the financial field (Vakil Lu, 2005). According to Phelan (2001), the Web will never be able to substitute for the judgment and expertise of financial planners, nor will it be able to protect investors from all of the scams that are abundant on the Internet. In reality, the news and new information people found on the internet might not be as new as they think. Moreover, many online traders only focus on the here and now and do not look at the whole picture or at the future as financial advisors are trained to do, thus jeopardizing their investment. Challenge Our research examines the pressures for change over the past decade that was overcoming the inertia in the brokerage industry. We viewed the challenge from the perspectives of traditional brokerage firm and electronic brokerage firm. Traditional brokerage firm To provide online trading, traditional brokerage firms were forced to decide on which of the two approaches to go, either establishes new subsidiary with a new brand name or provide under its own name. For the first case, brokerage firm suffer from overlapped company structure and considerable marketing expenditure to build the new name, which prolonged the period to reach break even point. The later case, though easier to setup, brokerage firm is putting their reputation at stake when the service do not meet customers expectation. The strategy adopted was to have differentiated brands serve the younger, more tech-savvy investors that gravitated to on-line trading without nibbling full-commission business. With the advent of the World Wide Web, discount brokerage firms face a comparable disintermediation dilemma. Commissions were suddenly under pressure, customers wanted to trade directly, and competition is coming from non-traditional sources like direct banks. To address the competitive threat, some entrenched firms adopted the supermarket approach by providing other supplementary services like providing financial information and news. However, such approach was in fact a typical re-intermediation path that directly competed with full service brokerage firm which offered a wider portfolio of products and services. Nevertheless, creating a financial services supermarket was a misguided strategic choice for three reasons: First, many successful 1990s businesses have rediscovered the virtues of adhering to their core competencies and the power of strategic outsourcing in order to gain agility. Most of the conglomerates which attempted to enter the financial services arena learned the hard way that adding unfamiliar lines of business can dilute their ability to compete, weaken shareholder and customer loyalty and multiply management complexity. The reason for failure was economic. Risk and cost sharing in the production or delivery process can enable better time to market and make providing a product/service bundle more efficient than integrating everything in-house. Second, offering additional products to an existing customer base does not prevent customers from leaving. Also, the decision to add new products to an existing portfolio is complicated by an uncertain environment such as the Internet. In an uncertain techno-marketplace, a firm is often making an informed guess about what it thinks is best for a customer without fully knowing what that customers preferences and goals are. Third, technology-enabled firms like ETrade were taking the â€Å"re- intermediation† path in a new way by providing customers with interactive and personalized services at little or no cost. This branding and trust-building approach enables the service providers to learn directly and accurately from each customer whats actually important to him or her. Armed with this intimate customer knowledge, these companies are better positioned to build loyalty and increase profits for the long term. Clearly, re-intermediation was a difficult strategy as sustainable competitive advantage was becoming rare in the on-line environment. High performers today look for a series of short-term advantages over a long period of time instead of attempting to plot a far-sighted course in an environment with too many unpredictable variables. Innovative Internet-based intermediaries were the real threat to the entrenched players. These firms were adopting dramatically more effective means of forging interactive relationships with customers added value, which was essentially the incremental benefit that the new in the middle firm brings to the customer. They were looking to exploit synergism across different product lines. They innovated more frequently and organized to seize opportunities much faster than their competitors. The reason was: concentrated focus on traditional sources of competitive advantage such as cost, technology, and differentiation was inadequate because competitors were quick to replicate advantages. They seek to identify and rapidly responded to subtle changes to the finest ingredient: the individual customer. To sustain competitive advantage, it was important to embrace business practices that encourage deep customer insight and thinking about how to materially improved the customers value proposition. Electronic brokerage firm Online brokers rushed to pour money to increase their capacity to absorb the fast growing demand during dot.com boom in 2000. The only way considered effective to increase market share at that time was advantageous offers and promotions, combined with enormous marketing expenses exposing them to a very high costs. The development of the online brokerage market was highly dominated by such marketing approach. Absence of physical branches and thus reduced operation cost entitle internet brokers the advantageous cost structure. Instead, they allocated this saving and invested on massive marketing campaign in order to achieve the biggest market share as soon as possible. By attracting and developing the loyalty of new customers, these brokerage firms were expecting soon to reach the break-even point. The bull market during the dot.com boom had dusted the eye of these online brokers. They failed to anticipated adverse situation when significant downturn in capital investments occurred and stroke their over investment. The stock markets had proved its volatility in a year time, when the dot.com boom burst in 2001. The serious regression caused by global slump of economy and the later SAR outbreak during 2003 had made the situation even steeper for the industry. The depression lasted for a couple of years before reaching a rising track started on 2007. Stock market transaction was drastically dropped from hundreds of billion down to tens of billions and last for years. Investors were either scared away or suffered from great lost by the sudden market plunge and prolonged recession. The once admirable capacity had turned into the biggest burden for brokerage firm. Naturally, all of them suffered from great investment lost, if not bankrupted altogether. All the internet brokerage firms had paid a huge price for this costly experience. The lesson they learnt made them re-evaluated the challenges ahead and the goals to attain. They have learnt that low commission rates or excessive marketing expenses would not give them competitive advantages and made the break-even point harder to reach. Instead, they had to revise the services they offered and discover alternative source of revenue. Suffered from the great impact of market volatility, they were looking for a flexible enough business models that is able to cope with the huge capacity demand during a bull market while enable them to safely transit bearish market. We can classify the challenges facing online brokerage firms into three categories: strategy, marketing and technology. Strategic challenge The characteristic of online brokerage had fundamentally changed the brokerage industry. New competitors like insurance companies, banks and financial portal had entered the arena. With the competitive advantage in possessing technology, a large customer bases and knowledge of their customers, they posted great threat to traditional brokerage player who want to participant in online brokerage. The large customer bases not only significantly reduced marketing cost but also helped to minimize development and operation cost due to economy of scale. Coupled with the open standard characteristics, traditional brokerage players had an up hill battle to fight. The value chain of the brokerage was invaded by these new competitors, forcing traditional p

The Effects of Snowboarding on the Skiing Industry :: essays papers

The Effects of Snowboarding on the Skiing Industry The ski industry has been around since the beginning of the century. Since that time the retailing industry of the ski world has been on a steady increase. At the beginning of this decade the increase began to skyrocket. However, skiing was not the reason for the growth. The reason for the dramatic increase in industry sales in the retail world of skiing was due to snowboarding. By now almost everyone in the country has either seen a snowboard, ridden one, or knows someone who has. The purpose of this paper is to discuss what snowboarding is, and to shed some light on the financial aspects of this new sport. Snowboarding hit the scene in 1972. Jake Burton, at the age of 15, decided that he had enough of skiing and wanted to do something a little different. With a little ingenuity and some of his dads tools he began working on the first snowboard. His project lasted about three weeks and when he was done he decided to take his invention to the slopes and she how it worked. This was almost the end of snowboarding. Every slope Jake went to denied him access, saying that they only allowed skis on the hills. Jake was a very determined kid and this did not stop him. He began hiking every back-country trail he could find and he became quite efficient at snowboarding. At the same time he continued to knock on all the ticket windows at every resort but still had no success. He decided that the only way he could prove his invention was nothing more than a different version of a ski would be to make a video of himself riding down the back country hills. This was no easy task, keep in mind the year is 1972. Jake was determined and he met up with a guy named Craig Kelly who at the time was into video production of skateboarding and skiing. Jake gave the sales pitch and Craig bit hook, line, and sinker. The next week the video was complete and Jake took it to all the resorts with Craig and they pled their case. By this time Jake had made about a dozen more prototypes of his snowboard and all his best friends were riding them. Finally a small mountain, Okemo, said "O.K. Jake you can ride, but only during the week" This was all it took and from then on almost anyone that saw this crazy kid zipping down the hill on a wooden board with both feet strapped to it began to ask questions.

Assignment: Question in Mgt417 Slide Chapter 6

2012 Table of Contents Question 1: Differentiate among B2C and B2B electric commerce1 Question 2: Describe electronic storefronts and malls2 Question 3: List the major issues relating to e-tailing2 Question 4: Briefly differentiate between the sell-side and the buy-side marketplace3 Question 5: List 3 ethical issues and 3 legal issues in electronic commerce3 1. Differentiate among B2C and B2B electric commerce.The difference between B2B and B2C is the customer requirement. B2C focuses on individual customer transactions, whereas B2B focuses on other businesses as the consumer. This difference creates different needs for B2B applications. One difference between B2B and B2C is the type of order. For example, when you order office supplies or parts, you usually order the same products as well as the same amounts at fairly regular intervals. Repeat and standing orders are a common B2B requirement. Type of payment is also a different requirement for B2B transactions.When your company make s a purchase, you rarely use a credit card for payment. More likely, you will have varied forms of payment such as lines of credit and open orders. B2B applications are designed with these requirements in mind. Another difference is the type of search function in B2B applications. A catalog to browse through is not necessarily a requirement, depending on the type of B2B purchase you want to make. When shopping for specific items, your company may benefit from a configurator and bid function rather than browsing and searching an online catalog.Lastly, the type of connection between B2B and B2C differs. When you are connecting to a B2B application to make a purchase, you are normally connecting to one partner (a buy-side or sell side application) or several trusted partners (an e-marketplace or Trading partner agreement application). Because you are dealing with a relatively static list of trading partners, virtual private network (VPN) technology may be used to provide secure access to selected applications inside your firewall, thus avoiding the need to replicate data and applications outside your firewall. 2. Describe electronic storefronts and malls.Electronic Storefronts is a Web that represents a single store. Hundreds of thousands of electronic storefronts can be found on the Internet. Each one has its own uniform resource locator (URL), OE Internet address, at which buyers can place orders. Some electronic storefronts are extensions of physical stores such as Hermes, Sharper Image, and Wal-Mart. Others are new businesses started by entrepreneurs who saw a niche on the Web. Examplesare Restaurant. com and Alloy. com. Manufacturers for example, www. dell. com as well as retailers for example, www. officedepot. com also use storefronts.Whereas an electronic storefront represents a single store, an electronic mall, also known as cybermall or e-mall, is a collection of individual shops under a single Internet address. The basic idea of an electronic mall is t he same as that of a regular shopping mall – to provide a one-stop shopping place that offers many products and services. Each cybermall may include thousands of vendors. For example, Microsoft Shopping or now Bing shopping, www. bing. com/shopping includes tens of thousands of products from thousands of vendors. 3. List the major issues relating to e-tailing. Channel Conflicts †¢Conflicts within click-and-mortar organizations †¢Order fulfillment and logistics †¢Viability and risk of online e-tailers †¢Identifying appropriate revenue models 4. Briefly differentiate between the sell-side marketplace and the buy-side marketplace. There’s a few differences between between the sell-side marketplace and the buy-side marketplace. The sell-side marketplace is a model in which there are many buyers but one seller. In the sell-side marketplace model, organizations attempt to sell their products or services to other organizations electronically.This model is similar to the B2C model in which the buyer is expected to come to the seller’s site, view catalogs, and place an order. In this case, however, the buyer is an organization that may be a regular customer of the seller. The sell-side model is used by thousands of companies. Examples are major computer companies such as Cisco, IBM, and Intel. The seller in this model can be either a manufacturer, a distributor, or a retailer. Whereas the buy-side marketplace is a model in which there are many sellers but one buyer. The buy-side marketplace, also known as e-procurement, is a model in which EC technology is used to streamline the urchasing process in order to reduce the cost of items purchased. A major method of e-procurement is a reverse auction. In reverse auctions there is one buyer, who wants to buy a product or service. Suppliers are invited to submit bids. The supplier that submits the lowest bid wins. Such auctions attract larger pools of willing suppliers. 5. List 3 ethic al issues and 3 legal issues in electronic commerce. Ethical issues 1. Free Speech 2. Privacy 3. Disintermediation Legal issues 1. Copyright 2. Cyber squatting 3. Fraud on the Internet

Words That Evolved from the Latin Term for Turn

Words That Evolved from the Latin Term for Turn Words That Evolved from the Latin Term for Turn Words That Evolved from the Latin Term for Turn By Mark Nichol A small group of words ending in -volve share an etymological origin of the Latin verb volvere, meaning â€Å"turn,† but they have some cousins whose family resemblance is not obvious. Here are some expected and unexpected words with that ancestor in common. The words that obviously stem from -volve include evolve, meaning â€Å"change,† â€Å"develop,† or â€Å"grow† and its noun form, evolution. That word is most familiar in reference to the scientific theory of change by natural processes over long periods of time, but it can also generically apply to any iteration. The antonym of evolution is devolution, though the word also has a neutral or positive connotation of transfer of rights or responsibilities from a central government to local authorities; the verb form is devolve. To involve is to include or envelop (the noun form is involvement), and to revolve is to turn again; revolution can refer to the repeated turning of an object (such as an engine) or to the overturning of one government in favor of another. A revolver, meanwhile, is a handgun with a rotating cylinder that positions each bullet to be fired in turn. Convolve is a rarely used word meaning â€Å"turn together,† though the noun form, convolution, is sometimes employed to refer to something with intricate turns or curves or, figuratively, something complicated, and the adjective form convoluted is common. Another unusual word, circumvolve, means â€Å"wind or wrap around†; its noun form, circumvolution, is also seldom seen. Words that also ultimately (but not obviously) derive from volvere include vault, the word for an arched or domed structure (and, by extension, any underground or similarly protected chamber), and valve, the name for a device that is turned (or, in the case of musical wind instruments, pressed) to produce a desired result. Volume, the word for a measure of sound, mass, or some other quantity (and, by extension, a collection of content), also stems from volvere, as does voluble, an adjective describing someone who speaks quickly and energetically (though it also refers to rotation), and the noun volute refers to something with a spiral or scroll shape. Volte-face is the French translation, adopted into English, of about-face, meaning â€Å"reversal† or â€Å"sudden change in attitude.† Finally, vulva, the name for the external part of female genitalia, may be related to and even descended from volvere in the sense that it appears to roll away from the vagina or to resemble a wrapper. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:5 Uses of Infinitives55 Boxing Idioms150 Foreign Expressions to Inspire You

Kahn and Verifiability

Kahn and Verifiability Introduction Thomas Samuel Khun’s contribution to philosophy remains a significant milestone in nursing (and by extension, the field of science). Khun introduced the concept of â€Å"paradigm shift† in mainstream science by suggesting that scientific models undergo paradigm shifts (periodically) and therefore, the notion that scientific models develop in a linear manner is untrue.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Kahn and Verifiability specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In this regard, Khun suggests that science cannot solely rely on objectivity but rather, by considering subjective aspects of the discipline as well (Klemke, Hollinger, Rudge, 1998). This paper analyzes Khun’s philosophy by evaluating how it revolutionized the philosophy of science. This paper also highlights how Khun’s philosophies helped the nursing practice, as opposed to hindering it. Finally, this paper evaluates if fals ification or verifiability provides a stable criterion for science, and if it is possible to have a significant statement without either of the two processes. How Khun Revolutionized the Philosophy of Science Khun’s contribution to science stretches through his achievements in the field. As explained above, one such achievement was his introduction of the concept of â€Å"paradigm shift,† not as an absolute operative principle of science but rather, as an important principle of science (Klemke, et al., 1998). Khun developed his principles by conducting a critical analysis of different individuals at MIT and Harvard. From these analyses, he opposed perverted science as â€Å"absolute as Baconian as over humanities idea† (Klemke, et al., 1998, p. 15). This was a good contribution of science. From these contributions, Khun remains a key figure of the dialectic in epistemology. How Khun’s Contribution helped Nursing Khun’s contribution to nursing stems from the revolutionary theory and its contribution to nursing. For many years, researchers held the opinion that nursing resembles revolutionary development models in other sciences (Dahnke Dreher, 2011). However, Khun changed this philosophy by evaluating different perceptions of health events in nursing and proposing that the existence of a single paradigm is unacceptable in the field. Many scholars accepted his view because nursing works by helping and caring for people who present different dynamics in care delivery. Therefore, Khun’s contribution has helped the nursing practice (as oppose to hindering it) because his views accommodated varying patient dynamics in nursing models (especially concerning the changing attitudes and different cultural dynamics influencing care delivery).Advertising Looking for essay on philosophy? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Falsification or Verification Khun’s arg ument of the functions of a scientific test mainly compares with Popper’s view on the same. Karl Popper was a respected philosopher but he greatly differed with Khun because he proposed that only falsification ensures the validity and reliability of scientific tests. Khun however maintained that scientific tests are supposed to affirm verification (as opposed to falsification) (Klemke, et al., 1998). Khun proposed that verification resembled â€Å"natural selection† in modern science because it established how the fitness of a theory is determined. Therefore, in a historical context, the process of verification identifies the most viable theory (among a pool of other similar theories). Khun meant that by verifying a theory, a scientist would easily establish the accuracy of a theory in defining reality. Therefore, contrary to proponents of falsification, Khun advocated for verifiability as the main criterion for evaluating theories. However, his assertions bore signifi cant flaws. Indeed, it is crucial to highlight why it is vital to eliminate the concept of verifiability because not all scientific evolutions gravitate towards an understandable goal of corresponding to reality. In fact, Khun agreed with scientists who considered this view to be unwarranted (Klemke, et al., 1998). Therefore, for any scientist to comprehend the dependability of a theory, they have to evaluate how it compares with falsification. Scientists deliberately use falsification for evaluating scientific paradigms because it is the only logical possible test for scientific selection (Klemke, et al., 1998). The criterion of falsification is therefore the missing link to Khun’s argument because a scientific theory differs from an ideological model because its hypotheses are amenable to falsification.  From the intrigues surrounding the debate of falsification and verification, it is safe to acknowledge the possibility of having a significant statement without verifying it. Measuring the falsification of a theory is therefore the main measure of understanding scientific paradigms. Therefore, based on the understanding of Khan’s flaw, falsification is a more suitable criterion of science. Consequently, scientists may make a significant scientific statement without verifying it. Conclusion After weighing the findings of this paper, it is crucial to acknowledge the contributions of Khun in science. His contribution to science also mirrors his contribution to nursing because his introduction of the concept of â€Å"paradigm shift† accommodates varying patient dynamics that occur in nursing. Patient dynamics manifest as a crucial factor in this analysis because nursing mainly focuses on caring for patients.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Kahn and Verifiability specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In this regard, Khun’s contribution to nursing has helped the discipline , as opposed to hindering it. However, because not all scientific theories gravitate towards an understandable goal of corresponding with reality, falsification stands out as the more stable criterion for science. Therefore, it is possible to have a significant scientific paradigm without verifying it. References Dahnke, M. D Dreher, H. M. (2011). Philosophy of science for nursing practice:  concepts and application. New York: Springer. Klemke, E.D., Hollinger, R. Rudge. (1998). Introductory reading in the philosophy  of science (3rd ed). New York: Prometheus Books.

Analysis of theoretical explanations of the relationship between Essay

Analysis of theoretical explanations of the relationship between technology and society - Essay Example 2.1 Technological determinism is a reductionist theory which holds the assumption that a society’s technology plays a crucial role in driving the development of its social structure as well as the cultural values (McLoughlin 1999, 32). The social structures evolve as a result of adapting to the technological change. The theory also suggests that technology moves on its own course which is normally independent of the human direction. It is therefore regarded to as an autonomous system which ultimately permeates all other sub systems of a society. Technological determinism contributes to the conclusion that emergence of automated technology inevitably raises the level of skill as well as the autonomy of the work force. According to Webster (2002, 34), technological determinism is also a clear explanation of the relationship between technology and society which asserts that technology plays an important role in determining the social existence within a society. In most instances technological changes act as catalysts for societal change. The changes are either seen as literally outside the context of the society or metaphorically outside the society. In addition, the technological developments take place as a result of natural logic which is not socially or culturally determined. As a result, the developments enact change and social adaptation (McLouglin 1999, 39). 2.3 The reason as to why I think they are perfect examples is due to the impact they have on the society and their autonomy nature. Bearing in mind that technological determinism refers to technology as an autonomous system, the quotes support the idea behind that. For example, robots are slowly being assimilated into the systems of our homes and lives whereby they will play a central role later in the century just like both the internet and combustion do now. In reference to technological determinism, the revolution of

MARKET COMMUNICATIONS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

MARKET COMMUNICATIONS - Essay Example What platform should be used by them in order to market their products and services more effectively covering huge masses all around the globe? The companies also aim to find such marketing tools which are personal and closer to their customers’ needs and preferences. Information Search This step involves the searching phase in order to obtain the latest information regarding the most effective personal marketing tool. Different tools are used by the companies to advertise themselves. TV and commercial ads are considered as one way marketing in which the customer’s feedback cannot be obtained. In this way, the current trend of bidirectional marketing is on its move such that most of the companies are using social networking sites for this purpose. These companies not only post their marketing messages through the banner ads but also create their communities to interact with their customers, and other fans of their products. Evaluation of Alternatives After the gathering of information regarding the social network sites, the next step is to evaluate these sites as to which site fulfill the advertising requirement of those companies. Social networking sites including Facebook, twitter, MySpace etc are the most popular sites which are mostly used by the companies to advertise themselves. ... In this way, these companies tend to focus more towards Facebook as Facebook has the most number of active users as compared to other social networking sites. Buying This step is the actual buying activity in which these companies pay the Facebook for their banner ads to be put in to the Facebook pages. Facebook provides those companies a unique offer such that these companies can target their customers who are within the geographical and demographic boundaries of those companies. For instance, Facebook ensures that only those users should watch those banner ads which are used to target them by these companies rather than posting those banners on the profiles of those users who cannot be catered by those companies by any means. Post Buying Decision In the post buying stage, these advertising companies keep evaluating as what actually is feedback of the customers who being attracted by the Facebook platform. These evaluations can be performed by the activities of the users on the comm unity pages created by these companies. Customer’s feedbacks and likings would certainly lead to the judgment as how effectively the marketing messages are conveyed to the customers as a primary basis. Increase in sales and revenue growth of these companies, would eventually conform the expectations of these companies as to what extent the companies remained successful in terms of their marketing efforts. Factors affecting Facebook Customers External Factors Four external forces can influence Facebook customers might be: 1. Government interventions in respect of utilizing Facebook as a medium of marketing tool 2. Emergence of other better social networking site with more enhanced