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Analysis of McDonald’s Corporation The WritePass Journal

Analysis of McDonald’s Corporation Abstract Analysis of McDonald’s Corporation , total revenues reached USD$ 27.5 billion. This is a 2% growth from its 2011 figure. Based on data for the past six years, the company had the highest growth rate in 2010-2011 at 12%. However, the company experienced a steep decline the following year, with growth rate at only 2%. Table 1. McDonald’s 6 Year Summary (Millions) Dollars in millions, except per share data 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 Company operated sales 18,603 18,293 16,233 15,459 16,561 16,611 Franchised revenues 8,964 8,713 7,842 7,286 6,961 6,176 Total revenues 27,567 27,006 24,075 22,745 23,522 22,787 Table 2. McDonald’s 6 Year Percentage Growth Year on Year Percentage Growth 2011-2012 2010-2011 2009-2010 2008-2009 2007-2008 Company operated sales 2% 13% 5% -7% 0% Franchised revenues 3% 11% 8% 5% 13% Total revenues 2% 12% 6% -3% 3% 2.Industry Overview and Competitive Environment McDonald’s operates in the fast food industry, which involves selling foods and beverages for immediate consumption either within the retail premises or as â€Å"take away.† The market may be categorized in to the following segments: QSR (Quick Service Restaurants), Leisure Locations, Mobile and Street Vendors, and Takeaways. In 2011, the global fast food market grew by 6.8%, reaching USD $253 billion in total value. The compounded yearly growth rate from 2007 to 2011 was at 5.2%. QSR is the most lucrative segment, generating over $167.8 billion in revenues; which is equivalent to 66.4% of the total market value (Research and Markets, 2013). McDonald’s, together with other players such as Burger King, dominate the burger segment (Reynolds, 2013). The market is comprised of many independent restaurants, as well as large chain outlets. To a reasonable extent, competition is intensified by the low entry costs and the ease with which already established companies can increase volume or grow outlet numbers. Within the restaurant industry, players focus more on fast food where profitability is dependent on high turnover activities. The degree of price competition is usually high within this industry with many companies, including McDonald’s, focusing on the same target market. Competitors range from fast food restaurants, traditional fish and chips outlets, coffee shops, and other fast food businesses (Brotherton, 2012). Key competitors to McDonald’s are other similarly large and well-established global fast food chains such as Burger King, Wendy’s Co, and Yum Brands. Although it is not actually a fast food chain, Starbucks is also considered as a major competitor of McDonald’s due to its immense popularity, especially in the US. McDonald’s McCafe chains are considered as more of a competitor to Starbucks. Table 2. Profile of McDonald’s Top Competitors Competitor Profile Burger King Corporation  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Operates over 12,174 fast food outlets in the US and has others in over 76 countries across the world  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Has 1,387 company restaurants as well as 10,787 independent franchises Domino’s Pizza Inc.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The leading pizza delivery firm in the US  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It runs a network of about 8,999 outlets, both franchises and company-owned stores in US’s 50 states and other 60 world countries. Starbucks  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A global coffee company based in the US  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is the largest coffee shop chain in the world with over 20,800 stores in 62 countries Wendy’s Co.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Wendys/Arbys Group, arose from a merger between Wendys International and Triarc Companies  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Wendys/Arbys group is a popular quick service restaurant operator, franchising the Wendys and Arbys brand names within the US and Canada.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The total number of franchises for this group is over 10,000. Yum Brands Inc.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Yum runs several branded restaurant chains including Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In total, it has over 39,000 restaurants spread in over 125 countries. Source: Key Note, 2012 Figure 1. Market Share of Fast Food Chains in the US (2006-2011) 3. Market Entry Strategy Historically, McDonald’s has experimented with a variety of market entry strategies (Hendrikse, 2008). Currently, some of the outlets are run by the company, while most of them (more than 26,000 outlets) are franchises. McDonald’s franchise arrangements comprise conventional franchise engagements, developmental license arrangements, and foreign affiliates. Of all franchises, the corporation runs 19,279 conventional franchisees, 3,574 affiliates and 3,485 developmental licenses (McDonald’s, 2013). Currently, McDonald’s is one of the biggest franchisors in the world. The company has implemented a comprehensive framework for engaging, training, and monitoring its franchises to make sure that they abide by McDonald’s’ Values, Quality, Cleanliness and Service plans (Moschandreas, 2000). These franchisees are required to pay a fixed fee plus a certain percentage of the generated revenues. They operate basically as independent entities within a national brand structure where they purchase various inputs from the approved contractors and also determine their own prices. The first international market expansion experiment by McDonald’s was to establish an outlet in the Caribbean with limited supervision by the company. After the failure of this first attempt, the firm experimented with a joint venture strategy in Netherlands. In this experiment, the local stores involved replaced the usual McDonald’s menu offerings with based on local preferences. The company decided to abandon its old strategy where stores would be run by local entrepreneurs and instead engaged a combination of both local and expatriate partners (Marketwatch, 2005). Unfortunately, the result was disastrous; forcing McDonald’s to revise its entry strategy. This made way for the second phase of entry, which was centred on adapting versus changing local culture. Despite some initial failures, McDonald’s continued to experiment with market entry strategies in foreign markets. For example, in India, the company established as a 50-50 joint venture partnership. This arrangement was between McDonald’s USA and two other Indian businessmen, Vikram Bakshi and Amit Jatia, who owns Connaught Plaza Restaurants and Hard Castle Restaurants respectively (Gerhardt et al., 2012). The joint venture partnership was different from McDonald’s usual franchise business model but it was seen as the best way to successfully enter India’s highly diverse and complex restaurant industry. 4. McDonalds Global Marketing Strategy The marketing mix is a framework consisting of the basic, strategic components of a firm’s marketing plan. The components are referred to as the 4P’s denoting product, promotion, place, and price (Chon et al., 2012). Marketers decide the right mix to use where they can alter the final product or service offerings to customers by varying the components of the mix. This section analyses McDonald’s marketing mix to find out what the foodservice retailer has done to position its products in the market. 4.1. Product Product is probably the most important element of McDonald’s’ marketing mix. The company has tightly controlled its products’ quality so as to induce demand from the target market (Verma, 2012). With the support of the other elements, McDonald’s has managed to develop a broad product portfolio to attract a broad market segment. The company’s products are planned carefully, considering aspects such as quality, design, shape, brand name, services, size, services, and packaging. McDonald’s also oversees the operations of all its restaurants to guarantee uniformity of standards in product quality and services offered.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   An important matter when it comes to international marketing relates to how a firm adapts its products across national boundaries. McDonald’s, like many other internationally recognized brands, uses standardization to ensure that its products appeal to a wide audience. This is a very i mportant marketing aspect because the company must ensure that its global brand is preserved. Therefore, McDonalds restaurants across the word offer a substantially standard menu. However, according to Thomadsen (2007), some variations are necessary to make sure that the different needs of consumers in different regions are addressed. As such, McDonald’s has made effort to adapt some of its products to some markets. This is necessary because consumers in different areas have diverse needs, tastes and preferences, and different consumption and buying habits. A good example of McDonald’s adaptation strategy is the Indian market where the company, on top of trying to market its international brand, has made several modifications to its products to make sure that they are suitable for Indian consumers. The Indian market consists of a large number of vegetarians. Therefore, the company found it necessary to modify its product offerings to cater to this market segment. This led to the introduction of vegetarian foods such as McAloo Tikki and McVeggie Burgers. The company has made sure that the separation of the two food categories (vegetarian and non-vegetarian) is maintained. Also, in India where cows are considered sacred, burgers are either fish or chicken in instead of beef (Armstrong Kotler, 2005). McDonald’s constantly innovates its product offerings based on the changing needs and preferences of its customers (McDonald’s, 2013). Additionally, intense price competition increases McDonald’s motivation to differentiate itself from other industry players. Applying a differentiation strategy can help a company to control price competition to some extent (Thomadsen, 2007). It can be surmised that McDonald’s is not a global retailer of exclusively American food because it offers modified menus to suit different regions. The brand and the format are globally consistent; however, certain customer-oriented components like individual menu offerings and service personnel are tailored to suit local preferences. 4.2.   Price Price is another very important element of a marketing mix. This refers to the amount that consumers are required to pay so as to obtain products and services. McDonald’s has always been dedicated to providing quality food products for reasonable prices (Datamonitor, 2012). Therefore, the company has developed a pricing structure to support this objective. Historically, the company has had several value bundling and pricing tactics such as Combo meals, Happy Meals, Family Meals, and others. The dollar menu is one of the most significant price strategies adopted by this firm. 4.3.  Place Another very important element of McDonald’s marketing strategy is place. In general terms, place refers to the mechanisms (distribution, intermediaries or channels), which enable the firm to supply its products to the final consumers (Thomadsen, 2007). McDonald’s has strategically situated its outlets to make sure that customers have easy and convenient access to its products. The best example is the United States where the walking distance to a McDonald’s outlet averages three minutes. In smaller market regions, McDonald’s locates it outlets close to the market centre; while in large markets, it chooses locations which are on the opposite sides of the market. Compared to its closest competitor, Burger King, McDonald’s locates outlets closer to optimal central locations. In a nutshell, McDonald’s is all about convenience (Datamonitor, 2010). 4.4.  Promotion In a marketing mix perspective, promotion encompasses the various marketing communication modes that McDonald’s uses to communicate information about its products in order to generate positive response from its consumers (Mishra, 2009). McDonald’s devotes a vast amount of money to global advertising, with the aim of promoting its image. It has used several advertising formats such as print publications, billboards, radio, television, and the internet. In order to increase awareness and create a lasting image in the minds of its target market, McDonald’s has creatively employed slogans such as: â€Å"It’s a good time for the Great Taste of McDonald’s† â€Å"Food, Folks, and Fun† â€Å"We love to see you smile† â€Å"I’m Lovin’ it† McDonald’s strives to position itself as a fun family restaurant and has implemented several tactics to achieve this goal. A very effective strategy that has enabled the company to differentiate itself from other companies is invention of the Ronald McDonald character. This character was invented to symbolize the company and has become a recognizable figure. The show â€Å"The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald,† produced under the sponsorship of the company, is an outstanding promotional strategy that leaves every kid craving the McDonald’s experience (McDonald’s, 2013). The company also positions itself as a family fun restaurant by setting up play areas in its outlets. With the use of various strategies, McDonald’s has built a strong image. This has greatly helped the company not only to grow but also to stave off the competition (Chon, Pizam, Mansfeld, 2012). 5. McDonald’s Corporation has always been determined to remain ahead of competition. Its international marketing strategy employs several tactics, which has enabled the company to emerge as one of the market leaders in the fast food restaurant industry. The success of a business greatly depends on the effectiveness of the strategies it adopts. McDonald’s’ strategies have proven to be effective as evidenced by the level of success that the company has achieved to date. The initial strategy for the company involved taking standardized American practices to other parts of the country. The initial resistance and failures that it experienced forced the company to change their strategy and instead adapt itself to the different preferences of its target market. References Armstrong, G. Kotler, P., 2005. Marketing: an introduction. London: Prentice Hall. Brotherton, B., 2012. International Hospitality Industry. Burlington: Routledge. Chon, K.S., Pizam, A. Mansfeld, Y., 2012. Consumer Behavior in Travel and Tourism. Madison Ave, New York: Routledge. Daley, J., 2013. Do you want truffle fries with that? Entrepreneur, 41(1), pp.124-29. Datamonitor, 2010. Mcdonalds Corporation SWOT Analysis. London: EBSCO Datamonitor. Gerhardt, S., Dudley, D. Hazen, S., 2012. Franchising and the Impact of McDonalds. Journal Of Management Marketing Research, 10, pp.1-10. Hendrikse, G., 2008. Strategy and governance of networks: Cooperatives, franchising, and strategic alliances. Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag. Key Note, 2012. Fast-Food Home-Delivery Outlets Market Report Plus 2012. [Online] Available at: keynote.co.uk/market-intelligence/view/product/10636/fast-food-%26-home-delivery-outlets/chapter/1 [Accessed 9 March 2013]. Marketwatch, 2005. Company Spotlight: McDonalds Corporation. Marketwatch: Global Round-Up 4, no. 12, pp.78-83. McDonald’s, 2013. Company Profile. [Online] Available at: aboutMcDonald’s.com/mcd/investors/company_profile.html   [Accessed 9 March 2013]. McDonalds, 2013. McDonalds USA Ingredients Listing for Popular Menu Items. [Online] Available at:   Ã‚  http://nutrition.McDonald’s.com/getnutrition/ingredientslist.pdf   [Accessed 9 March 2013]. Mishra, P., 2009. Sales management: Keys to effective sales.. New Delhi: Global India Publications. Moschandreas, M., 2000. Business Economics. London: Thomson. Research and Markets, 2013. Fast Food: Global Industry Guide. [Online] Available at: researchandmarkets.com/reports/564112/fast_food_global_industry_guide [Accessed 9 March 2013]. Reynolds, J., 2013. McDonalds runs ad to knock rival Burger King. Marketing Magazine, 25 January. Thomadsen, R., 2007. Product Positioning and Competition: The Role of Location in the Fast Food Industry. Marketing Science, 26(6), pp.792-804. Verma, H.V., 2012. Services marketing: Text and cases. New Delhi: Pearson Education. Wendys, 2013. The Wendys Company. [Online] Available at:   aboutwendys.com/Our-Company/   [Accessed 9 March 2013].

Authentic Assessment Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Authentic Assessment - Case Study Example This customer-centric approach has led them to a huge success in the consumer goods market. Since last decade, P&G has adopted this strategy to focus on fulfilling the needs of consumers. For this they have come up with innovative products and services that helped people improve their living standards. P&G no more believes in providing expensive products and serving the higher economy classes, they have been strongly focusing on the BOP markets from last many years. Innovation has definitely been the key to success for this company. From realizing the need to have hygienic diapers for children to creating cheaper razor blades for the lower income group to producing greener products; they have innovated and served the market. As mentioned in the case, the company's value and sense of purpose is: "Invoke the heart and care about human needs, the strategy seems to say, and the money will follow." Bob McDonald wants to take this even further. He believes that caring about human needs com e first and cash inflow will definitely follow. The first step is to care about the human needs and improving their lives. Previously, the customer-centric approach was just being practiced in a few parts of the world, and in fewer segments. Bob wants P&G to exist as the leading FMCG in every part of the world, touching lives of various consumers belonging to different demographical areas, and having different lifestyle. He also wants to bring newer products to make the lives of consumers better and serving them completely. With globalization, technological innovations, and international competitions; there is a huge need to innovate and fulfill the needs to consumers in every way possible. Bob has the same vision. He wants to identify the needs of consumers, and fulfill these needs by providing products and services that give them superior value. With this vision and purpose, there is a strong need to change and evolve the culture. P&G's culture varies from country to country. Alth ough the company has a strong culture, there are always improvements required. For their business to grow and to touch more lives in the world there is a need to have very strong core values embedded in everywhere it operates. These core values would ensure that every employee of P&G, whether s/he is in USA or China or Africa or any other part of the world, knows these core values by heart and live by them. Great companies always change their culture according to the needs. No company has the perfect corporate culture. Therefore there is a need to evolve, improve and get better. There are some traditional and conventional practices that still take place in many parts of P&G. These practices need to be forgone and they have to adopt new ways according to the changing times. Things like cultivating diversity, flexible working hours' time, creating leadership and bringing innovation in every aspect of their business are very important for their cultural change. 2) Evaluates whether the current culture is attracting, retaining and motivating the employees who offer the needed knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) in order to achieve the goals of the organization. Employees are no doubt the greatest assets of the company. They provide the knowledge, skills and abilities to the company's products and services in order to excel. In order to enable them to work even smarter, a company has to provide an environment where they feel comfortable and which

The Effect of Clinical Simulation on Student Self Efficacy in Learning Research Paper

The Effect of Clinical Simulation on Student Self Efficacy in Learning at NSU - Research Paper Example Health care profession demands high standards of work ethics and faultlessness. Therefore, if these standards are not met self confidence tends to deteriorate. In such conditions, one tends to feed anxiety because failure is anticipated, which undermines one’s self-efficacy (Watt & Stewart, 2008). Examining the social learning theory proves to be valuable in discussing the effect of clinical simulation on self efficacy of students. According to the social learning theory, self efficacy refers to an individual's belief that he or she is capable of performing a task, in terms of organizational behavior; the higher the self efficacy, the more confidence one has in one’s capacity to perform a duty (Robbins, 2010). To explain the importance of clinical simulation, one needs to collect data regarding the incorporation of this method in teaching curriculum. Focusing on this point, clinical simulation has become an essential part of learning; state boards of nursing approve spe cific substitutions count between 10% and 25% of simulation time as clinical experience (Gaberson, Gaberson & Oermann, 2010). Nevertheless, complete comprehensive data and the performance of students need to be collected for complete analysis of the effects of clinical simulation. This study targets the students or health care professionals currently training in programs which include dealing with clinical simulation. It will give an in depth insight about the effects of clinical simulation on the future medical practice of students. Simulation is a goal-directed experimentation with dynamic models, which has time-varying characteristics and can be mathematical, symbolic or physical (Sokolowski & Banks, 2009).... This essay approves that the following exposition revolves around the basic idea, advantages, disadvantages and its probable effects on self efficacy of students and professionals of one of the methods widely used in practical learning; Simulation. For decades, research on the ways to make teaching methods more effective has been carried out around the world. Whether it be health, sports, law, politics or any other profession, incorporation of practical work is now essential in educating students belonging to diverse professions. The purpose of this study is to closely evaluate the pros and cons of clinical stimulation and all the possible ways in which one can affect the students under medical training. In depth to the whole idea of clinical simulation, emphasis is based on the self-efficacy of the medical professionals trained through clinical simulation and whether this routine has a positive or negative effect on it. Furthermore, we explore whether using artificial means of clinical education, in contrast to an actual interaction with a patient, can successfully prepare students for challenging medical emergencies they shall encounter in professional careers. This report makes a conclusion that health care simulation is therefore, a very effective way of preparing medical professionals for their medical practice on real-life patients and serious practical problems, since students can practice skills in a simulation laboratory without the constraint of a real-life situation. Since medical simulation gives an opportunity to experience a diverse range of situations, it helps enable medical professionals to deal with sudden unfamiliar complicated situations arising in real-life.

Career Development Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Career Development Assignment - Essay Example Having a variety of options opens up a multitude of choices for my future career. First consideration that I should take is passion – where does my passion lie? Is it in serving others? Is it in exploring sites and sounds or is it in running my own business? I have decided to approach it in two ways: in the short-term, I would like to learn as much about the industry as I can. Therefore, my decision was to get involved in the services sector. I would like to target a hotel management trainee position, in the likes offered by Tangloom Resort, which provides a comprehensive understanding of all the aspects of the services sector for the industry. With that I will have exposure on the variety of roles that I can take, at the same time, be exposed to the tourism industry aspect of the resort service. A resort-type of environment offer challenges in meeting more variety of nationalities and cultures. Having spent the first five years of my career being exposed in those aspects of t he industry, I will now have to look at my long-term plans. In the long-term, I would like to prepare for retirement. Thus, my experiences in the short term should be able to bring me an opportunity for a long-term career and gain experience and resources, especially financial resources, for a respectable employment. At this point, I have yet to paint a clearer picture of the long-term goal. Having limited exposure to the industry and what it can offer me financially, I cannot complete my long-term plans. However I look forward to taking the path towards my short-term goal which exposes me to the possibilities in preparing for my long-term plans. To set me on the right path, I will focus my learning plans to my short-term goals. I will make sure that my curriculum covers the necessary courses to provide me with tools to be successful in the hospitality industry. During summer, I will take up

Attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa

Attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa The developing economies of Africa must on their part make deliberate and sustained efforts to attract the much needed inflows of foreign investments. To achieve this, the enabling economic, financial and political environment for such inflows must be created. An economy that is exposed to higher levels of political instability, economic uncertainties and financial risk will not be able to gain the confidence of investors. These risk factors if not well mitigated with a great degree of transparency and accountability could serve as barriers to both local and foreign investments. According to Banz and Clough (2002), the major reasons among many others for not investing in developing economies are the lack of transparency and poor governance policies. Therefore, Nigeria and other developing economies of Africa must work towards an environment that has a relatively reasonable economic risk, ensure political stability and demonstrate moderate financial risk to attract foreign capital inf lows especially in the form of equity investment. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) markets to which Nigeria belong have of recent experienced some legal, regulatory and supervisory changes resulting into increased transparency in the operation of their markets. The liquidity of the markets have increased and operations also liberalized to attract more foreign investors. The Nigerian economy is the largest of the 15 member body and has a lot of political and economic influence over the other members. Conscious efforts have been made by the various member countries to partially open up their economies, through systematic privatization programs, overhauling of their legal and financial institutional infrastructures and use of modern trading platforms have resulted in real development of their markets and manage to attract some foreign direct investments (FDI) to them. Nigeria is currently the biggest economy in Africa after the recent rebasement of its GDP, thereby beating South Africa to the second place ((Magnowski, 2014). The petroleum sector accounts for roughly 80% of fiscal revenues and 90% of export earnings (World Fact book).The country is also one of the major exporters of petroleum, and plays a significant role in OPEC (OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin 2013). To diversify its economy Nigeria is encouraging the growth of their private sector by offering some incentives to private sector equity investors who are willing to invest in the country. The country has an increasing GDP of $422.6bullion, $450.4billion and $502 billion for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively, and diminishing foreign debt stock of $15.73 billion and $13.4 billion for 2012 and 2013 respectively. There is also an increasing Foreign Direct Investment of $7.444 billionand $9.212 billion for 2012 and 2013 respectively (World Fact book: World Bank). The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is the second largest exchange in Africa; it was established in 1960 to provide listing and trading services among others. Its activities are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the country. The value of publicly traded shares stood at $50.88 billion, $39.27 billion and $56.39 billion for 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively. Despite all the above mentioned strong economic fundamentals or good indicators, Nigeria has been plagued by several daunting challenges, notable among them are the issues epileptic power supply, inadequate infrastructures, insecurity, endemic corruption, increasing rate of unemployment and its heavy reliance on petroleum products (Global edge, 2014; World fact book). These factors pose some uncertainties about the Nigerian economic and stock market outlook. Nevertheless, the Nigerian economy is still growing. Fortunately, the government is also conscious of some of these teething problems. Programs are initiated to diversify the economy in the areas of agriculture, power, telecommunication, transport and other services. These efforts seem to be yielding the desired results as evidenced in the country’s 6-8% per annum pre-rebasing growth rate. With these measures a seemingly conducive economic environment is created which could be exploited by investors. This therefore, presents reasonable economic risk. There is also institutionalized democracy leading to political stability in its own form in terms of the country’s ability to carry out declared programs. Nigeria is also able to finance its commercial and trade debt obligations and has at no time defaulted in payment of its external financial commitments; thus demonstrating relatively moderate financial risks. These indices send strong signals in terms of information content about Nigeria’s overall economic health to domestic, international investors and rating agencies among others. Therefore, it will be of interest to empirically explore how these factors (economic, financial and political risks) when taken together or separately can affect the country’s stock market performance and vice versa. Country risk ratings assess the probability of a country’s default on its debt from a variety of perspectives: from socio-economic condition to growth in the real gross domestic product (GDP), government stability to corruption, to exchange rate stability among others. The objective of this paper is to empirically investigate the short and long-run relationships between Nigeria’s country risk ratings; political, economic, and financial components and its stock market in order to provide further information for current and potential investors to enable them make better informed investment decisions. In our knowledge this is the first few studies of this nature conducted on an emerging economy like Nigeria. Our main instrument of investigation is the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach formulated by Pesaran and Pesaran (2009) and Pesaran et al. (2001), to empirically investigate the relationships. The ARDL method is adopted because of its econometrics techniques. One important advantage of the ARDL model over other traditional approaches is that it can be used in time-series data irrespective of their order of integration, whether I(0), I(1) and/or fractionally integrated (Pesaran and Pesaran, 2009). The ARDL approach can also test for cointegration by the bounds testing procedure and can estimate the short-run dynamics and long-run relationships. The rest of the paper is organized as follows; section two discusses related literature. Section three explains the methodology adopted in this paper. Section four presents the ARDL procedure and discusses its empirical findings. Conclusion and implications are given in section five. The globalization of trade and financial markets in the past years has created huge investment opportunities and its attendant risks. It has therefore, becomes inevitable to know the credit worthiness of participating players. The motive behind such an assessment of the economic and financial condition and sometimes political stability of a country is to be able to evaluate the country credit risks involved in doing business or investing in such a country. Any event in a country that will affect not only the prospect of profitability but also restrict the movement of capital in the form of profits, dividend etc is worth evaluating. The need for such critical evaluation of credit worthiness of countries has resulted in the establishment of several rating agencies such as Fitch, Moody’s and Standard Poor among many others. These risk ratings are considered as indicative of possible future default. A higher rating is seen as a lower risk of default, while a lower score indicates a higher risk of default. Though the primary significance of ratings is due to their impact on interest rates at which countries source for funds in the international financial markets, studies have also shown its influence on stock market movements. This argument is linked to the influence of country credit risk ratings on the inflows of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), into the host’s economy, especially through equity shares investments. There is no scarcity of research papers on sovereign ratings and their critical roles for encouraging and facilitating investment flows especially in developed economies, but there is paucity of studies conducted on the impact of these ratings on movements of national stock markets, particularly for emerging markets such as Nigeria. Some of the early studies by Erb et al (1995, 1996a, 1996b) show that there is association or relationship between country credit risk (i.e. the risk of a country’s inability to service its external debts) and returns on equity investments. The existence of relationship between country credit ratings and stock market returns was confirmed in the early work of Erb et al. (1996a) using data that cut across boundaries. As a follow up to their earlier work, Erb et al. (1996b) investigated the influence of economic, financial and political risks on expected fixed income returns. They show that there is relation between the country risk measures and world bond market expected returns. For the ICRG economic variable, they find positive and significant signs in unhedged, local, and foreign exchange portfolio returns. They also show that the country risk attributes are significant to the real yields of fixed income securities. Kaminsky and Schmukler (2001) also examine the influence of sovereign ratings and outlook changes on the sensitivity of emerging financial markets. They find that these variables have substantial influence on both bond and stock markets. A domestic downgrade is associated with an average increase change rate of two percentage points in bond yield spreads and a decrease of one percentage point in stock returns. SubaÃ…Å ¸Ãƒâ€žÃ‚ ± (2008) expressed a contrary view, stating that in most cases news of a downgrade is often anticipate earlier before its announcement; therefore the potential negative effect of such information on stocks and exchange rate returns is diluted. The impacts of rating changes on both bond yield and sovereign debt have been tested severally by many authors. Reisen and Maltzan (1999) using the three main rating agencies, find that there is mutual interdependencies among rating changes and changes in bond yield spread. The study by Cantor and Packer (1996) also reported similar findings. Among several authors that have provided valuable insight into the influence of rating changes on sovereign debt and corporate securities are Hand et al. (1992) and Richards and Deddouche (1999). The degrees of sensitivity in all these studies tend to vary probably because of the methods used for the country risk analysis. Hammoudey et al. (2011) using emerging economies; Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (commonly referred to as the BRICS countries) establish various degrees of sensitivities of these countries’ stock markets to their respective country risk ratings. China is most sensitive to all the risk variables, followed by Russia, while all the BRICS countries show moderate economic risk sensitivity. The spillover effect of sovereign debt rating changes on national stock markets and international debts is also confirmed by various authors, among them are Ferreira and Gama 2007; Li et al 2008. This situation is common among countries that share common economic features and unrestricted Evidence of flow of information. Common border also suspected to play a significant role. Regional stock market movements are also influenced by country credit risk rating news. This development is consistent with the study by Christopher et al. (2008), stating that there is a positive relationship between the two factors. While Brooks et al. (2004) in their study, though under a different setting did not find any sensitive association among the two variables. Turkey’s stock market index also seems to have association with its economic, financial and political risk ratings. Using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, Sari et al. (2013) established a steady long-run relationship among the stock market and some of the risk variables. There are many leading commercial publishers of country and political risk analysis, but data for this study is sourced from the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) economic, financial and political risk ratings for Nigeria covering the period 2001 to 2013. The ICRG rating system is made up of 22 variables representing three major components of country risk, namely economic, financial and political. These variables essentially represent risk-free measures. There are 5 variables representing each of the economic and financial components of risk, while the political component is based on 12 variables (Hoti, 2003). The specified allowable range for each factor reflects the weight attributed to each factor. A higher score indicates a lower risk and vice versa. The stock market returns variable is obtained by taking the first logarithm difference of the monthly stock of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the period earlier specified.s

Lack of Variance Among Modern Cars :: Economy

Lack of Variance Among Modern Cars We ask ourselves every time we see heavy traffic, is there no variance anymore amongst car models? In the old days, as a matter of fact only five or ten years ago every single car brand seemed to have it's own personality, today they look more like a cluster of copycats. What went wrong? One reason is that the automotive industry has certain trends it has to follow, just like fashion designers and musical composers. In times of recession and decreasing sales there is less room to take chances and manufacturers are prone to follow the common pattern as a safer bet rather than releasing a controversial product that might or might not sell very well. This makes for different models to conform considerably under the rules and regulations for the design of a car of this decade. Another reason is that many manufacturers actually cooperate and by contracts copy each others models. The Mitsubishi 3000 GT for example is practically the same car as the Dodge Stealth, only the Mitsubishi is made in Japan at the original factory and the Stealth is made in the US at the Dodge factory. Apart from the two emblems respectively, very few details differ the two cars. Honda who have been in need of a sport utility vehicle in order to grab their share of that part of the market, which has grown considerably the last decade have taken almost desperate measures. They have simply bought the rights to re-badge the Isuzu Rodeo as the Honda Passport and marketed it as an all new model. The last and maybe the most logical reason is that all manufacturers are striving towards 'the perfect car'. All cars are supposed to offer a maximum of performance, passenger room and cargo space, and a minimum of fuel consumption and cost to manufacture and maintain. There are only so many ways to technically achieve these goals. Cars tend to get more rounded edges in order to be more aerodynamic. The trunk lid is high in order to offer greater cargo space without imposing on the passengers. The design of the trunk lid is also approaching the 'optimal' shape for easy loading and access. Windows are large and pillars are thin for better view. The lights, both back and front, are homing in on the design for maximum

ICT Multimedia Coursework Assignment Essay

Introduction: I am going to set my presentation on Work Experience and this will target students in year 10 which will help them know what would be done before Work experience in order to them to go on it. I will also give the year 10’s a taste of how it will be like when their on work and the skills that they will gain during the weeks on their work. In this assignment I have used Microsoft Word to type up my report because it’s really fast and easy and better than writing it by hand. I also used Microsoft PowerPoint to do my presentation about Work Experience. During my assignment I used Windows Explorer to get images, which will be put on to my presentation and some on my video that I have created on Movie Maker. Techniques used: Custom Animation: – I used this technique because it helps you add affects to your slides. I do this simply by click on slideshow at the top then clicking on custom animations then you have a choice to pick which animation you need. Action Buttons: – I used action buttons in my presentation because when you view on a slideshow it will show a set of buttons and when you click on them they will take you directly to a slideshow, so basically its like a shortcut if you want to go to the previous slide, and to do this you will have to add action buttons to your master slide this will automatically add Action buttons to all of your slideshows. Slide Transition: – I used slide transition because these are affects, which are placed between one slide to another to make your slideshow more Attractive, there are all types of affects with a range to choose from. Master Slide: – I also used master slide in my presentation because I thought it will save me a lot of time for example if I want something to appear on every slide I don’t need to write it out every time I can just use master slide and do everything I want on one of the slide and it will automatically appear on all of them. Slide 1 (Work Experience): – In my first slide I used a theme which was used for all of my slides and as you can see it has a certain colour which appears as a title and for other descriptions. I also got the two pictures from clipart which relates to work experience and gave them custom animation as well. Also I used master slide to put the action buttons on all of my slides. Slide 2 (Why do we do work experience?): – In my second slide I used the same theme but changed the colours slightly just to make it look different. I used custom animation to my title, writing and picture. The picture from clipart shows a clock which relates to what I said about work and punctuality. Slide 3 (What do you achieve from work experience): – My third slide was about the achievements of work experience which will explain to the year 10s of the achievements they will get when they do work experience. I used custom animation to all of writings and pictures, which shows graduated students. I used this picture because it refers back to what I said in this slide about what achievements will work experience give you when you go to university and college. Slide 4 (Where can you get work experience from?): – The fourth slide will tell the year 10s a brief description of what they need to do to apply for a work. The picture from clipart relates to the slide because it shows number of employed people and it will give the people an idea of the sort of jobs that will be available for them when they go to work. I also used custom animation to my slide to make it more entertaining and flexible.lol Slide 5 (Rules of work experience): – This slide is about the rules of work experience that need to be flowed by the year 10s while they are in work. I also added a video of what they need to do in work experience for e.g. keeping their workplace clean and tidy. I also used custom animation to my slide as it will entertain the people looking at the power point. Slide 6 (Selection of jobs): – My last slide was about the type of jobs they can choose whether from the website or manually by going o the place and getting the form by the employer. I added a picture from clipart it shows a man signing paper this refers to what I said in this paragraph about the application form and jobs. I also used custom animation to it to make it entertaining.

Free Essays on Hedonism

, the ultimate goal of life is to obtain pleasure or happiness and avoid pain and suffering. Humans spend their entire lives following this philosophy whether they realize it or not. This philosophy is called Hedonism and philosophers have split it into two branches; one being ethical hedonism and the other psychological hedonism. Ethical Hedonism is the view that our fundamental moral obligation is to maximize pleasure or happiness. It is most associated with the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (342-270 BCE.) who taught that our life's goal should be to minimize pain and maximize pleasure. In Epicurus’ A Letter to Menoeceus, one of his only surviving fragments, Epicurus gives advice on how to decrease life’s pains and describes the nature of human pleasure. â€Å"We recognize pleasure as the first good innate in us, and from pleasure we begin every act of choice and avoidance, and to pleasure we return again, using the feeling as the standard by which we judge every good.† (Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus). Epicureans believe that every pain is bad and should be avoided, whereas every pleasure is grand and should be sought after. Therefore, when making choices, man should strive to attain the most pleasure possible, to seek ataraxia (peace of mind, or intellectual pleasure). Psychological Hedonism is the view that humans are psychologically constructed in such a way that we exclusively desire pleasure. With Psychological Hedonism there exist three sub-sections of it: â€Å"Goal is Pleasure†, stating that a person will only do something if they believe it will either cause them pleasure or avoid pain. â€Å"Motivation by Pleasant Thoughts†, where a person would choose to do A rather then B if and only i... Free Essays on Hedonism Free Essays on Hedonism Through out a person’s life, they will make billions of decision that affect them. But why do they make the decisions they do? I believe every decision made is in the pursuit of pleasure, or the avoidance of pain. In other words, the ultimate goal of life is to obtain pleasure or happiness and avoid pain and suffering. Humans spend their entire lives following this philosophy whether they realize it or not. This philosophy is called Hedonism and philosophers have split it into two branches; one being ethical hedonism and the other psychological hedonism. Ethical Hedonism is the view that our fundamental moral obligation is to maximize pleasure or happiness. It is most associated with the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (342-270 BCE.) who taught that our life's goal should be to minimize pain and maximize pleasure. In Epicurus’ A Letter to Menoeceus, one of his only surviving fragments, Epicurus gives advice on how to decrease life’s pains and describes the nature of human pleasure. â€Å"We recognize pleasure as the first good innate in us, and from pleasure we begin every act of choice and avoidance, and to pleasure we return again, using the feeling as the standard by which we judge every good.† (Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus). Epicureans believe that every pain is bad and should be avoided, whereas every pleasure is grand and should be sought after. Therefore, when making choices, man should strive to attain the most pleasure possible, to seek ataraxia (peace of mind, or intellectual pleasure). Psychological Hedonism is the view that humans are psychologically constructed in such a way that we exclusively desire pleasure. With Psychological Hedonism there exist three sub-sections of it: â€Å"Goal is Pleasure†, stating that a person will only do something if they believe it will either cause them pleasure or avoid pain. â€Å"Motivation by Pleasant Thoughts†, where a person would choose to do A rather then B if and only i...

Case Study on Today’s Fashion by Mary Watson Essays

Case Study on Today’s Fashion by Mary Watson Essays Case Study on Today’s Fashion by Mary Watson Essay Case Study on Today’s Fashion by Mary Watson Essay 1 Introduction The case is about a national chain of specialty stores namely, Today’s Fashion, which has 200 outlets all over the country. Lately, Mary Watson was the promoted to the job position of the Regional Sales Manager for one of the largest markets of Today’s Fashion, the Pacific Coast. She manages 35 outlets under her in California and Oregon and each store manager is directly accountable to Mary. The number of assistant store managers would vary according to the number of specialty departments. Each assistant manager is liable to only one department. She was agitated by how Today’s Fashion management used to run, no clarity of the job roles and thus she urged that there should be a change. The change included by hiring new qualified assistant store managers and for this, a job analysis was conducted by her. However, there were some major issues to be looked upon in this process of change. 2 Issues 2.1 Issue 1:- Use of only one method of job analysis and single source of data Mary Watson constructed a job analysis in order to hire new qualified store managers which she believes in will be the best way to increase the improvement in store management. Despite the fact, that she lacked proper knowledge of how to prepare a job analysis, She prepared a job analysis based on her personal experience when she was a store manager previously. To improve the accuracy of job analysis, she also interviewed three other current store managers. The weaknesses noticed in this effort were that she used limited data sources and collection methods and she was not qualified enough to do make a job analysis. The case highlights that she had a degree of BBA in Marketing which explains that she did not have an experience in making a job analysis. The job collection methods used were not fully effective in constructing an accurate job description and job specification. 2.1.1 Recommendation Mary could have used other different ways to collect data or a combination of different methods which could have helped her in completion of a successful job analysis. For example; observations, past critical incidents and questionnaires. Observation method:- A method which involves in observing the employees performance and noting down important details about how each tasks is being performed by them. Questionnaire method:- This method involves in formation of a questionnaire which are supposed to be filled by the employees and the managers as well about the job description and job specification. Past critical incidents method:- In this method, the past experience of the previous employees and the important incidents faced by them are analyzed. Mary should have studied the various method of job design, in which the most helpful in this case would be job enrichment method. This method would have helped her in the design a solution which would be beneficial for the company and would have solved her concern with the improvement of store. To summarize, Mary could have done a better job analysis if she would have interviewed various other managers, used other data collection methods and asked for expert advice from her superiors or colleagues.

BMW's Market Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

BMW's Market Strategy - Essay Example As such, BMW’s market strategy will be evaluated and analyzed for optimal performance. Pros and cons of BMW’s market strategy BMW has been a leading auto manufacturing company that has maintained its niche market leadership through strategic market plans. The target segmentation and highly creative advertising have been its major elements of success. BMW has introduced different variants of its luxury cars to cater to the different segments of the market. The selective target marketing has helped it to exploit the requirements of people coming from myriad backgrounds. With the evolving times, people’s purchase behaviour underwent dramatic changes. While initially social class represented the high end BMW cars, consumers’ changing demands, vis-a-vis design variety, size, price, and style choices became the major factors in buying decisions. BMW started with 3, 5, and 7 series that only varied in size and not design. But 1980s was distinct in its populace of baby boomers, yuppies, and other fast upcoming segments of the market; the representatives of these segments had money to flaunt and expected new products and services from manufacturers. ... Shultz (2001) strongly believes that it is the end-users who now control the markets rather than the marketers. The fast changing demography of increasing pluralistic society has significantly impacted the market strategy. The socio-psychological paradigms have emerged as crucial elements that influence buying decisions. Personal choices representing people’s changing social status and family compulsions have become important issues. Indeed, according to Assael (1998), family is considered to be the most important consumption and decision making unit. A big comfortable family sedan may be required by affluent families for their family outing, or sleek and sophisticated fast paced machine may be the choice of new breed of young turks. The BMW’s decision to develop more categories within its various series was, therefore, not only necessary but also an extremely important ingredient of its strategic plans. It helped to penetrate new market and maintain its competitive adv antage in the market. Moreover, consumption pattern and lifestyle are intrinsically linked to the changing cultural paradigms in the contemporary environment of rapid globalization. Ennis (2009) argues that culture impacts the changing lifestyle of people and, consequently, influences their consumption pattern of the product. It is especially true for persons who are the main decision makers and control the finances. Furthermore, Kotler, Brown et al. (2010) assert that in the contemporary environment of globalization, brand creation and brand equity hugely facilitate in maintaining competitive leverage as the products are same. The brand provides the customer with a quality product which satisfies his or her needs and establishes a market

Recruiting and Selection Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Recruiting and Selection Paper - Essay Example It attempts to encompass every level of employees in the recruitment and selection procedure (Sullivan, 2007). Current Recruitment and Selection Approach used in Google There are several kinds of recruitment and selection approaches that an organization can adopt as well as implement. In this regard, a few of the approaches are internal sourcing, external sourcing, campus recruiting and employee referral among others. It has been apparently observed that Google use multiple approaches of recruitment. The prime objective of the organization is to employ talented employees. With respect to recruitment and selection approach, Google adopts unique approach and thus developed an effective recruiting culture successfully. The recruiting functions in Google encompass entire organization rather than focusing only upon human resource (HR) department. As a result, it can be affirmed that Google has gone through following certain extraordinary steps for attracting along with retaining best tale nts. The components relating to recruitment and selection approach that used by Google are as follows: Employment Branding Employment branding is a method of making an organization to be one of the finest sites to work for. Google has successfully established itself as an employer brand which helps to attract huge figure of individuals or people. As a result, Google is observed as one of the top companies of employment choice for different talented individuals. In this regard, the approach of employer branding helps to attract potential employees towards any particular brand (Sullivan, 2007). Employee Retention Google produces exceptional experience for the employee and provides chances for them to concentrate on developing their key abilities. Due to this reason, the rate of employee turnover in Google is quite low, even if the organization provides the employees only market- oriented salary. The key rationale for Google’s unique recruitment approach is that the organization does not consider money to be the only issue in employment, rather there are other non-monetary factors that largely affects employee loyalty by a considerable level (Sullivan, 2007). Creativity Google continues to crop up with innovative approaches in relation to recruit and select talented employees. For instance, in the year 2006, Google had rearranged its search engine in order to deliver effectual recruiting message to the students as well as the faculties of different schools and colleges. This approach of recruitment was quite simple and discreet in nature (Sullivan, 2007). Employee Referral Program Employee referral program is the other vital recruitment approach which used by Google. In this particular approach, if any suggested candidate is appointed by the organization, the employee who referred that candidate gains reward on the condition that the suggested employee stays for a specific time period. In Google, the program concerning employee referral has been designed w ith the intention of gaining excellent candidate experience. Google can be viewed to be highly active and considers every referral with equal importance. While other organizations design the program relating to employee referral on the basis of fulfilling organizational requirements, Google had understood that the success of employee referral program should be designed in order to satisfy the requirements of the employees (Sullivan, 2007). Data Oriented Approach to Candidate Evaluation Google