Social Media in Business and Society

Social Media in Business and Society Most organizations tend to look upon social media as a threat, where some even opt to ban the usage from the workplace altogether. The idea behind it being that employees would be given the opportunity to waste time online, chat, and possibly pose as a security threat to the organization. (Turban, 2011) (Smith, 2010) outlines risk of employees social media use at work, these can be both intentional or not and they could lead to legal and reputational risks for organisations. These have been categorised as three main problems: Use of social media cannot be fully regulated, monitored or controlled thus organisations are giving up control. Social media is a worldwide means of communication, once a negative post is online its only a matter of time till it goes viral thus reaching competitors, regulators and customers. Social media is emotional and employees can express their feelings of happiness and/or frustration. Furthermore, (Flynn, 2012) identifies the risks of having employees participating in social media by causing reputational damage, trigger lawsuits, cause humiliation, crush credibility, destroy careers, create electronic business records, and lead to productivity losses. (Dreher, 2014) argues that social media is not to be feared, but rather embraced and seen as an opportunity where employees can act as corporate advocates and brand ambassadors. If anything, it helps employees keep up to date with latest news related to the industry together with continuous knowledge development. Nonetheless, even though there are many studies that point out the benefits of social media, there is still no clear-cut decision whether it can influence work performance or whether it can fuel the social capital of the employees and help in knowledge transfer (Zhang, 2016). However, it cannot be denied that every organisation allowing social media at work will always have its fair deal of challenges to overcome. (Eliane Bucher, 2013) speaks about the health issues that can be encountered. Starting off with stating that there is so much information available on social media that professionals may face information overload. Not to mention the mix of work life with private life overlapping with social media. New technologies should improve workers efficiency and reduce stress levels however often the opposite occurs (Eliane Bucher, 2013). Technostress as referred to by (Brod, 1984). To be successful in the social media environment one needs to overcome the below 3 points otherwise technostress is formed: Techno-overload Increase in workload which could be actual or perceived. Techno-invasion Social media enables people to be constantly connected from almost every device. This can lead to the feeling of the need to be connected or online causing reduction in family time allowing work issues to invade the private life (Eliane Bucher, 2013). Techno-uncertainty Social media is constantly changing and therefore brings with it uncertainty as regards to what technologies and skills are needed to perform the job and what will they be in the future. Social media comes with many legal issues tied to it. These range from pre-employment to post employment. Wrong usage of social media will for sure lead to waste of time, inefficiency, reputation issues and negative image for the organisation. Some of the laws are outlined below by (Lieber, 2011): Employment Laws by tagging co-workers in certain provocative photos or videos, Defamation and Libel Laws by stating certain comments on co-workers or employers thus effecting their reputation., As stated in (Trott, 2009) a Microsoft Survey found that 41% of employers based their decision of not hiring an applicant based on what they found online in relation to their reputation. This is also known as Netrep. This constitutes a legal risk of discrimination in itself if the recruiter is basing decision on the netrep. Fair Credit Reporting Act by having interviewers friending an applicant on Facebook to acquire more information than is required for the job applied. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act by having a medical professional LinkIn with a patient. Uniform Trade Secrets Act by having employees discussing or commenting on social media about company internal only discussions or non-public projects. Employers can monitor the use of social media at work if the employees are informed in advance. Disciplinary actions can be taken once any abuse is being noticed. Policies should include what is allowed and what is considered as abuse (Trott, 2009). If the employees post on their personal accounts outside of office hours and such posts are in relation to work having a negative impact in some way to the employer or the organisation then there is still grounds for disciplinary action even though employees try to advocate for respect for private and family life, home and correspondence (article 8) or freedom of expression (article 10) from the Human Rights Act 1998. As discussed above, social media has its advantages and disadvantages and seeing that social media is here to stay organisations have little choices but to accept the new reality, address it and learn how to make good use of it. (Lieber, 2011), among others, identifies the following criteria that any organisation willing to harness social media must address: The creation and enforcement of solid social media policies within the organisations personnel addressing fair use, access during work time and general behaviour on social media (even during personal time). Directly using social media for the benefit of the organisation such as for recruitment, marketing and investigating competing organizations. Monitoring of key social networks to data mine information regarding your organisation (and potentially others as well), possibly using automated algorithms and software for maximum efficiency and accuracy. From the above-mentioned criteria, the first two deal with human resource aspect of social media where organizations lay out guidelines to their employees on how to use them, and they as the organizations can use social media directly for recruitment, marketing etc. However, as the third criteria suggests, to make most use of social networks organizations must make sure that any information/data being released on such platforms, is gathered and used effectively. It is important that an organization is always aware of what the average user is saying about their brand, effectively getting the general feel or mood while analysing the trends across time. The same principle could be applied to monitor competitors; possibly for example identifying any weak products which the competitors have and having your own similar product take advantage of the situation. Effective monitoring comes from generating good data. Data mining involves the following steps to make data meaningful for monitoring: (Raghav Bali, 2016) Removing unwanted data and noise Transformation of the raw data into data that can be used for further processing Study the data and come up with patterns that can give further insight to our data Represent the data in a way that is useful to companies or to who the data intended for. There are different data mining techniques which can be used to monitor social media use. Social media is a form of real time communication therefore an effective monitoring tool needs to monitor and provide alerts as things happen. Most text mining tools make use of search engines to go through social media sites and collect information related to the keywords or interests. (Mark My Words article) Text Analytics (Text/Data Mining)   Ã‚   Text analytics involves a complex and elaborate number of steps to strip down conversations into separate words and analyse the way these words are being used, positive or negative and even derive patterns from collected data. When we search for a movie and receive some other movie recommendations that technique is using text mining. Text Mining is made up of Data Mining (Information retrieval, Natural Language Processing Machine learning) + Text Data (Emails, Tweets, News Articles, Websites, Blogs etc.) Figure 1: Text Mining (Charu C. Aggarwal, 2012) As indicated in Figure 1, Stop Word Removal and Stemming eliminate the generic and less meaningful words form a phrase, this helps categorizing different words with same meaning as see, seen and being seen. Bag of Words (BOW) is having words separated from the sentence and each word having a numerical value which represents its importance. Limitations (Charu C. Aggarwal, 2012) outlines several limitations that can be observed and future in-depth research is required: The real-time posts on social media are a very important resource as mining data in real time as it is being posted can yield many advantages. This however remains a challenge for when these posts are not conducted from work computers or from outside work. Social media is very unstructured and some applications like twitter even limit the amount of characters per post. This brings about problems of text recognition when short length words are used like gnite gr8 etc. Social media allows different ways to express opinions or emotions these could be through images, videos and tags making the text analytics much more complex and difficult in its pre-processing stage. Method 1: Keyword Search (Rappaport, 2010) Organisations can decide which keywords they want to monitor, these may be chosen based on what is important for that company, it could be their products or emotional states. Social media is a very unstructured place containing noise and unwanted data for our data mining process. This form of search is good to capture keywords and try and form a meaning of these words and the frequency used however its very hard to come up with what is the users intent. For that reason, we then consider a more complex search method called Sentiment Analysis. Method 2: Sentiment Analysis and Emotion Analysis Sentiment Analysis is the process of identifying sentiment in text and analyse it. There are three types of sentiment analysis (Walaa Medhat, 2014): Document Level Analyse the entire document as one topic and form an opinion or sentiment on the entire document Sentence Level Analyse sentiment in each sentence Aspect Level Analyse sentiment in respect to entities as you can have more than one aspect in a sentence for the same entity. For this study, we are focusing our research on Sentence Level analysis using Semantic search. Semantic Search: Semantic search goes beyond the traditional keyword search by providing a meaning to a phrase and makes use of a wide range of resources to interpret the phrase and thus providing a more accurate result. Some examples of semantic search in our daily lives: Conversational searches:   Figure 2: Conversational Search (Google, 2017) Auto Correct spelling mistakes: Figure 3: Auto Correct (Google, 2017) Display information in graphics format: Figure 4: Information in graphics format (Google, 2017) (Charu C. Aggarwal, 2012) outlines some challenges that are encountered when going through mining. These are the difficulty in recognising opinions, subjective phrases and emotions. Opinion mining challenges. When using semantic search method on a post one needs to understand that the post can contain all the following: Positive opinions I like the computer I bought, it has a very clear screen Negative opinions however my wife thinks its too expensive Different targets The targets in the positive opinions relate to the computer and the screen whereas the targets in the negative opinions are the price Different opinion holders The positive opinions are mine however the negative opinions are of my wife Subjectivity mining challenges Posts are also made up of objective and subjective comments. Subjective expressions like opinions, desire, assumptions amongst others may not contain opinions or may not express any positive or negative comments. Emotions mining challenges Emotions (love, joy, anger, fear, sadness, happiness and more) fall under a form of subjective expression. Sometimes emotions give no opinions in a phrase. To observe the usefulness and ideal approach towards the analysis of social media related posts and messaging, a software algorithm was designed and partially developed to illustrate this scenario. The idea behind this software is to have the user write inside a textbox, mimicking an actual employee typing using a company machine, while the system monitors such text and acts per what it registers. Therefore, this tool will be presented as a standalone software/algorithm concept, emulating an actual activity of a possible employee, and as such must be adapted accordingly to make use of it in a real-life situation. The basic principle of the solution proposed is made up of three modules: The key logger that monitors the users input at runtime and effects certain rules The keyword and semantic analysis on the data gathered The storage of produced analysis and log The following flowchart outlines the lifecycle of said solution, followed by a detailed analysis of each component mentioned above, as well as possible ways on how it can be further enhanced to produce even more accurate results. The flow of the proposed solution. Created using draw.io (https://www.draw.io/) Collecting and Processing Data In this solution, key logging is used to monitor the data inputted by the user, which is a constant monitoring of the keystrokes registered by ones activity, and registered as a stream of text ready to be dissected and analysed as required. The main advantage of using such a strategy is that data is collected and used in real-time, making it ideal for scenarios where an alarm (for example a negative post related to work) needs to be raised as quickly as possible to the relevant personnel, providing a detailed log of what the employee has typed (through the key logger) eliminating the need to monitor and access the relevant social media to check what has been posted. Note: there are other strategies one can pursuit to monitor the users activity, such as firewall policies or general network surveillance, however in real-life situations such solutions can prove rather difficult to setup due to the expertise required; while web encryption and proxy services makes it even harder to effectively monitor the traffic generated by the users. A key logger, even if effective, generates a lot of unneeded garbage beyond the scope of social media. For example, an employee working on his station would be constantly registering keystrokes which the logger is then adding them up to its own text stream. This could prove to be very problematic for three main reasons: The logger would begin to amass a significant amount of storage space, unless the key logger is given a limit of how much information it can hold and removing old data to make up space for the new data, but than some information can get permanently lost. The analysis of the text stream generated can be quite intensive, which can significantly affect the performance of the machine doing the analysis, especially when considering that the analysis is assumed to be processed on the users machine which most probably isnt very well suited for such intensive work. Furthermore, following the previous point, the garbage log is being analysed too needlessly. The chances are that an employee would spend very little time on social media, thus logging and analysing the work-related activity is quite pointless for such a scope. To overcome the above-mentioned issues, the proposed solution makes use of predefined social media trigger keywords i.e. a list of social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc., where depending on such triggers being hit or not, the key logger will have two states, passive monitoring and active monitoring. When the tool is running normally, the key logger is in a passive state keeping only the last 30 characters in its memory, without processing the stream. The only thing it does however, is to constantly check the stream read from the textbox in the tool against the trigger keywords, and if any of the keywords is found to have been registered then the key logger would go into active state. While in this state the key logger would increase its maximum capacity, and begin to log every keystroke while constantly analysing the feed. The key logger will go back to passive state when the predefined character limit is reached or enough time has passed. Following this logic, only a set of keystrokes would be registered, reducing the chance of collecting and processing unneeded information while maintaining the workload and storage use of the machine to a minimum. Note: in this approach once the key logger goes into active state, it is monitoring and analysing the feed at runtime locally, and this could prove to be quite intensive depending on the parameters set and the overall performance of the users machines. Organizations implementing this solution can opt to have the log analysed after the key loggers goes back into passive state and therefore analysing the data only once. Better yet, since the solution assumes that the key logger is analysing the data locally, instead the logs can be sent to a common server and be analysed as a scheduled task. Once this data is captured through the key logger the feed can be processed by means of the methods discussed earlier (Method 1 and 2). Based on the outcome we store the data in our information system and align the data based on the organisations social policy. Approaching data analysis using keyword and semantic methods The designed software makes use of two different types of analysis algorithms, keyword based and semantic based, and are used together to try and cancel each others limitations and thus providing much more accurate results. Keyword based analysis The more traditional keyword analysis algorithm consists of having a list of keywords i.e. a predefined set of texts, and hit the data to be analysed against that list to determine whether any keywords have been hit and at what frequency. For example, having a text (representing the data) analysed against a list of negative texts (the keywords) would provide a set of statistical information which could be used to evaluate how negative the text is, which is conceptually what a social media monitoring tool should be trying to achieve. However, the major flaw of this analysis algorithm within the context of social media monitoring, is that keyword based analysis is far too broad and prone to false alarms if not controlled. Having the data gathered from the key logger (therefore filtered to social media activity) analysed against a set of negative texts, the statistical information produced may not be relevant to the organizations interest. An employee could simply be posting a feed about how bad the weather is and how much s/he hates it, which the keyword analysis algorithm would recognize as negative and report accordingly. In the proposed solution, the keyword based algorithm uses two different sets of keywords against the gathered data, with the aim to filter the batches of logged texts by relevance. The first set consists of a list of works related text, such as work, job, company, [company name] etc. i.e. every keyword that could somehow link the user to the organization implementing the solution. In the second set, a list of keywords/texts associated with negativity are stored, such as bored, unhappy, hate, dull, sick and tired etc. When the data passed along through the key logger reaches the keyword analysis module, it would first check the log against the first set and therefore determine whether the data fed is of any relevance to work, and if not simply do nothing. On the other hand, if any of the keywords from the first set is hit, it means that the data inputted is relevant and therefore must be analysed further. In this case, the tool would analyse the entire log within the key logger (which is currently in an active state as described in the previous section) and extract the statistical information with regards to the second set. The flow of the full keyword based algorithm adapted in the tool Created using draw.io (https://www.draw.io/) Examples Keywords to assume: First Set (work): WORK, JOB Second Set (negative): BORED, UNHAPPY, SAD, HATE, DULL, TIRED, SICK AND TIRED, ANNOYED, FED UP Example 1: Input Hate this weather, its severely effecting my mood. Constantly feeling tired and sad. Output None Example 2: Input At work and bored. Wish I could find a better job, this one is just so annoying. Output BORED x 1 [full log] Example 3: Input Never a dull moment at work. At the end of the day, the management brought in pizzas, fresh doughnuts and beer. In a couple of hours, the food was gone leaving everyone too tired to move. Got to love this company, always making sure their employees are never bored and unhappy. Output DULL x 1 TIRED x 1 BORED x 1 UNHAPPY x 1 [full log] From the examples above one can note a few limitations concerning the keyword based analysis algorithm. In example 2 the logged text is alarming, which most probably would require the full attention of the responsible personnel, but due to the limited keywords, only a single piece of text was hit which would make the output seem not so alarming. Furthermore, the logged text had the word annoying which in the negative keyword set is listed as annoyed, but still this was not captured. Therefore, this means that this algorithm is highly dependent on the keywords lists and possible deviations of each text. In example 3 the output looks very alarming since the negative keywords list was hit 4 times, but the input is very positive. The algorithm was unable to take into consideration the context of how the negative words were used and simply counted the number of times they were encountered within the log, hence raising a false alarm. To overcome such limitations, other algorithms must be used in conjunction with the keyword based, where in this solution the semantic based approach is used to compliment the algorithm and try to provide more accurate results. Semantic based analysis As explained in previous sections, semantic analysis introduces a certain degree of understanding when analysing a given text, and this is achieved by giving meaning to what it is fed. In this proposed software algorithm, this type of analysis is used to evaluate the sentiment and emotion behind the fed input, and therefore can determine whether the users work related activity on social media is negative or positive, which by extension may be able to overcome the limitations of keyword based approach. Basic forms of semantic based algorithms used to analyse text in relation to sentiment and emotion, often providing a single value output denoted by a percentage, where 0% means that the text is absolutely negative and a 100% would indicate that without a doubt it is positive. However, semantic analysis is capable to go beyond a simple value, where some of which can produce a fully detailed report indicating the level of emotions for multiple types, such as anger, fearfulness and joy. The following is an example of such a report produced by the tool Tone Analyser offered by (Cloud, 2017). Example report of a semantic based algorithm offered by IBM Watson Developer Cloud Applying such an algorithm which produces a very detailed report, may be well beyond the scope of monitoring work related activity on social media. In the end, what the proposed solution is trying to achieve is to detect negative activity which would harm said organizations, that when detected, the log of that activity is passed along to the corresponding personnel with perhaps a brief report of the analysis. Another drawback to be considered in this scenario, is that light weight semantic algorithms are much less intensive than algorithms which consider different types of emotions when analysing a text, and given that in the solution such an analysis will be triggered almost constantly, having a heavy algorithm being triggered would result in a very negative experience to said users. This is why in the proposed solution a lighter semantic analysis is considered, that is the API provided by (ParallelDots, 2017). Note: one could argue that using a semantic analysis algorithm which produces a detailed report, could replace the entire algorithm which is using both the keyword based analysis and the light weight semantic based analysis. However, performance wise the latter would operate much smoother, and from a technical point of view considerably easier to setup. Note: in the proposed solution, the semantic analysis will be conditional to whether the keyword based algorithm is triggered or not, and therefore subject to the filter which is detecting whether the activity on social media is related to work or not. Examples using the sentiment analysis demo provided by (ParallelDots, 2017), which outputs single value percentages 0% being negative, while 100% being positive. Example 1: Input Hate this weather, its severely effecting my mood. Constantly feeling tired and sad. Output 0% Example 2: Input At work and bored. Wish I could find a better job, this one is just so annoying. Output 6% Example 3: Input Never a dull moment at work. At the end of the day, the management brought in pizzas, fresh doughnuts and beer. In a couple of hours, the food was gone leaving everyone too tired to move. Got to love this company, always making sure their employees are never bored and unhappy. Output 79% Classifying severity based on score and frequency of words Thus far, the algorithm detected negative activity on social media relating to work, using both keywords and semantic analysis. However, the term negative can be rather broad and it may be the case that the organization would not want to be alerted for every minor negative activity, since that will become counterproductive. As such the proposed algorithm has a threshold mechanism which determines whether to send in alerts or not. The threshold settings are two. The minimum number of negative words the activity must contain, and the minimum percentage of negativity to be considered. Right after the key logger is finished monitoring the social media activity, if work related activity is logged, the system evaluates the log based on the threshold set by the administrators of the system, and proceed accordingly. Using same parameters of previous example for keyword and semantic based approaches. The thresholds are set as follows: Minimum Keywords 1, Minimum Semantic Percentage 30%. Example 1: Input Hate this weather, its severely effecting my mood. Constantly feeling tired and sad. Output None (not work related) Alert No Example 2: Input At work and bored. Wish I could find a better job, this one is just so annoying. Output Keywords hit: 1 Semantic: 6% Alert Yes Example 3: Input Never a dull moment at work. At the end of the day, the management brought in pizzas, fresh doughnuts and beer. In a couple of hours, the food was gone leaving everyone too tired to move. Got to love this comp

Barriers to entry into foreign markets

Any organization of relatively any size has some fundamental aims and objectives. One of such primal aims is to grow; this growth can be in terms of sales, profits, or anything else but the underlying value is to grow. In a given region or rather in the country of origin, a firm may grow up to a certain extent may be by reaching each and every corner of the country and having presence everywhere but this ‘everywhere’ is limited or bounded by geographical boundaries so the growth, in essence, is restricted.Organizations grow ‘big’ when they cross the borders, arrive in a new market and capture mass customer base and then move on to another target while keep in mind-frame the issue of customer retention. This phenomenon or type of growth is known as entry into foreign markets. Generally, the government of any country welcomes foreign firms coming in as they increase the investor confidence and show signs of growth; however, only in a few scenarios, that can be counted as exceptions, the local competitors welcome foreign firms.There are several reasons to this fact, the prime reason being people’s attraction towards foreign products and services. To ensure their local market share retention, these local vendors create barriers to entry in the local markets, which are in essence foreign markets for the investor . This research paper presents an over view of the barriers that might be faced by an entrant into a foreign market. These barriers can be of any form and type. The major aim of this paper is to analyze these barriers and how they can be eliminated.What is a foreign market? The foreign exchange market exists wherever one currency is traded for another. It is by far the largest market in the world, in terms of cash value traded, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, multinational corporations, governments, and other financial markets and institutions . Foreign Market Entry Global Assess ment One must first identify what regions or countries of the world would be a potential market opportunity for your product or service.Also conduct an industry sector analysis that covers the market outlook for a particular industry . A Foreign Market Entry Plan Having determined the best international markets for your products, you now need to evaluate the most profitable way to get your products to potential customers in these markets. This can be achieved through a Foreign Market Entry Plan that will help plan entry into a market and the Foreign Market Growth Plan that will keep you in the market. These plans typically include : †¢ Identification of marketing and sales objectives†¢ Target market descriptive †¢ Expected sales †¢ Profit expectations †¢ Market penetration and coverage †¢ Marketing activities †¢ Identification of target market †¢ Alternative Methods of Entry (based on Country Assessment) †¢ Development or redesign of tact ical marketing plan †¢ Product adaptation, or modification †¢ Promotion strategy †¢ Distribution strategy †¢ Price strategy (includes terms of sale and methods of payment) †¢ A proposed budget and implementation schedule †¢ Resource requirements (finance, personnel and capacity) †¢ Implementation and control plans†¢ Key contacts from the United States’ Foreign Commercial Services The Foreign Market Growth Plan It is completed near the end of your first year of entry into the country market. One must identify and prepare for Trade Events. Trade shows, international buyer programs, matchmaker trade delegations programs or a catalog exhibition program can lead to tremendous international opportunities . Methods of foreign market entry Methods of foreign market entry include exporting, licensing, joint venture and off-shore production.The method you choose will depend on a variety of factors including the nature of your particular product o r service and the conditions for market penetration which exist in the foreign target market . Exporting can be accomplished by selling your product or service directly to a foreign firm, or indirectly, through the use of an export intermediary, such as a commissioned agent, an export management or trading company. International joint ventures can be a very effective means of market entry. Joint ventures overseas are often accomplished by licensing or off-shore production.Licensing involves a contractual agreement whereby you assign the rights to distribute or manufacture your product or service to a foreign company. Off-shore production requires either setting up your own facility or sub-contracting the manufacturing of your product to an assembly operator. Barriers to entry into foreign markets The main trade barriers to any foreign market include: Psychological barriers in foreign exchange markets Traders adjust their anchors in two ways. Some believe that exchange rates move tow ard (perceived) fundamentals, while others bet on a continuation of the current exchange rate trend.The behavior of the traders causes complex dynamics. Since the exchange rate tends to circle around its perceived fundamental value, the foreign exchange market is persistently misaligned. Central authorities have the opportunity to reduce such distortions by pushing the exchange rate to less biased anchors, but to achieve this; they have to break psychological barriers between anchors. High import tariffs inclusive of restrictions related to national security Tariffs are taxes that raise the price of a good when it is brought into another country.Tariffs and import quotas form the toughest barriers. Seventy percent of respondents say tariffs on goods and services are the most effective form of protectionism, followed closely by import quotas (68%). But this is by no means the whole story: 45% say that artificially undervalued exchange rates do much to boost the competitiveness of loc al firms, while 59% cite subsidized competitors as a major barrier. Many also noted the challenges of informal protectionism, such as local firms convincing government officials to block the approval of licenses.Quota systems in Japan: The tariff quota system charges a lower duty rate (primary duty rate) on imports of specific goods up to a certain quantity, but a higher duty rate (secondary duty rate) on quantities exceeding that volume. This system protects domestic producers of similar goods but also benefits consumers with the lowest tariff rates possible. The tariff quota volume for each allocation can be applied in one of two ways: according to the order in which the request was received, or according to prior allocations.Japan utilizes the prior allocation method. The tariff quota system does not restrict direct imports, since imports can be made without a tariff quota certificate, provided high duty is paid. Regarding footwear, quota allocations to individuals or companies a re based on historical trade performance in the importation of footwear. Japan has allocated quota not to quota traders but to footwear importers, so business can take place as per footwear importers requirements. At the same time, new importers can acquire special quota for new importers.The Government of Japan implements this system in accordance with governmental regulation. Therefore, Japan believes that new importers have opportunities to obtain quotas under the current quota allocation system. Unfavorable foreign rules & regulations Voluntary export restraints limit the quantity of a good brought into a country, but they are initiated by the country producing the good, not the country receiving the good. Federal, state, and local governments sometimes restrict entry into markets by requiring firms to have licenses.The Federal Communications Commission, for example, grants licenses to radio and television stations; there simply aren't enough frequencies for an unlimited number of firms to broadcast in any area. For safety reasons, all nuclear power plants are licensed as well. Governments also bar entry by giving firms exclusive rights to a market. The U. S. Postal Service, for example, has an exclusive right to deliver first class mail. Firms are sometimes given exclusive rights to do things like operate gas stations along toll roads, produce electricity, or collect garbage in a city.Exclusive rights are granted if a government believes that there is room for only one firm in a market. Until the 1980s, the federal government also restricted entry into the airline, trucking, banking, and telecommunications industries. Many of the laws that restricted entry into these industries were put into place in the 1930s, when many people believed that large firms needed to be protected from â€Å"cutthroat competitors. † Many economists now believe that these laws did more harm than good. In 1938, for example, the Civil Aeronautics Board, or CAB, was establi shed to regulate the airline industry for interstate flights.For the forty years that it existed, it didn't allow a single new firm to enter the market, although it received over 150 applications for routes. In 1978, despite protests from the airlines, President Carter ordered the deregulation of the industry and the phasing out of the CAB. Within five years, 14 new firms entered the industry. Many experts believe that airline fares after deregulation were well below what they would have been had regulation continued. For instance, take China as an example. China’s government has set policies that are posing great challenges for foreign investors.China’s regulatory framework for cross-border remains a complex and incomplete patchwork of laws, regulations and policy decisions made by various ministries and government agencies. A lack of transparency, coupled with low standards of corporate transparency and disclosure, makes it difficult for potential investors to carry out due diligence to accepted international standards. Valuing the potential liabilities of a firm is especially difficult. At the same time, the Chinese government continues to close off so-called â€Å"strategic assets† to cross-border without specifying which sectors are defined as strategic, or why.To address these issues and remove other obstacles to cross-border deals, it is recommended for China to: †¢ Streamline the approval process for cross-border and make it more transparent; †¢ Put in place a sound competition framework; †¢ Further open its capital markets to foreign investors; †¢ Encourage its firms to increase corporate transparency and provide more up to date and accurate financial information to make it easier to value a potential acquisition, especially regarding a firm’s liabilities; Relax foreign ownership restrictions.In particular, revise existing catalogues that list the type of firms that can or cannot be acquired by foreign i nvestors. The report also recommends that China pilot these recommendations in the North-East of the country before rolling them out nationwide. This region, China’s historical industrial heartland, has a high concentration of state-owned firms in need of restructuring and technological upgrading, as well as high unemployment and low productivity. Cross-border could help rejuvenate the region’s economy. Free Trade PolicyPolicy in which a government does not discriminate against imports or interfere with exports. A free-trade policy does not necessarily imply that the government abandons all control and taxation of imports and exports, but rather that it refrains from actions specifically designed to hinder international trade, such as tariff barriers, currency restrictions, and import quotas. The theoretical case for free trade is based on Adam Smith's argument that the division of labor among countries leads to specialization, greater efficiency, and higher aggregate production.The way to foster such a division of labor, Smith believed, is to allow nations to make and sell whatever products can compete successfully in an international market. Arbitrary tariff classifications Regional wise review: Africa: The eight sub-Saharan African countries under review are undertaking economic and political reforms to promote economic growth and to facilitate their integration into global markets. Most of the countries have taken steps to improve their investment climate and are actively seeking foreign investment. Tariffs have been reduced, but remain high in certain sectors and countries. Other issues hampering U.S. exporters in sub-Saharan Africa include ineffectual enforcement of intellectual property rights, onerous customs delays, and corruption. Canada: The United States trades more with Canada than with any other country, but a number of issues threaten this partnership. The 1996 U. S. -Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement, which covers $7 billion in tra de, was created to mitigate the effects of Canadian provinces' timber sales practices and to provide time for reform. But the United States has seen little change in these practices and continues to be concerned with the lack of market principles in Canadian forest management systems.The Canadian Wheat Board has been reorganized but continues to enjoy government-sanctioned monopoly status, as well as other privileges that restrict competition. In October 2000, USTR initiated a 12-month investigation of the wheat board's practices in response to an industry petition. Canada committed to bring its dairy export subsidy regime into compliance with its WTO obligations by January 31, 2001: Instead, it instituted programs that essentially replicate the old regime. The United States has requested WTO authorization to suspend trade concessions if a WTO appeals panel determines that Canada has not complied.China: The United States and China continued multilateral negotiations on China's acces sion to the WTO throughout 2000. In preparation for accession, the Chinese government launched a campaign to align domestic laws and regulations with WTO rules. But a number of problems continue to plague the bilateral trade relationship. Import standards and requirements are being used to create import barriers for products that will benefit from tariff cuts following accession to the WTO. Imports of products ranging from cosmetics to medical equipment are required to undergo duplicative and expensive quality and safety inspection procedures.Imports of agricultural products such as grain, poultry and citrus have been arbitrarily blocked. Transparency continues to be an issue for both foreign and domestic firms. Inconsistent notification and application of existing laws and regulations create problems for businesses. China has made improvements in its intellectual property rights protection regime, but a high level of product counterfeiting and copyright piracy continues. European U nion: Several European Union policies continue to create significant barriers to U. S. economic interests.These include the bananas regime, bans on U. S. beef from livestock treated with hormones and on U. S. bio-engineered products, member state government financial support to the aircraft industry, and widely differing EU standards, testing, and certification procedures. Many U. S. trade concerns stem from the lack of transparency in the development of EU regulations. The United States views transparency and public participation as essential to promote more effective trans-Atlantic regulatory cooperation, to achieve better quality regulation, and to help minimize possible trade disputes.India: Access to the Indian market has improved with the removal in the last year of longstanding quantitative restrictions on a wide variety of products. However, India continues to impose substantial barriers to U. S. exports, including high tariffs and related taxes, and a variety of non-tariff measures affecting most trade, including an onerous import licensing regime. Inadequate intellectual property protection and enforcement remains a longstanding concern. India's policy linking auto imports to investment, local content and trade balancing is the subject of a WTO dispute.India has recently introduced new labeling and other standards-related requirements that could impede U. S. exports to India. Japan: Japan is the United States' third largest trading partner, accounting for well over $250 billion in two-way trade in goods and services. But a sputtering Japanese economy, persistent market access barriers, structural rigidity and excessive regulation limit opportunities for U. S. companies trading with, and operating in Japan. The United States is encouraged that Prime Minister Mori agreed with PresidentBush in their Joint Statement on March 19, 2001, about the importance of promoting deregulation, restructuring and foreign direct investment. Much of this year's report f ocuses on progress achieved under the U. S. -Japan Enhanced Initiative on Deregulation and Competition Policy. The report highlights the U. S. submission to Japan under the Enhanced Initiative in October 2000. The initiative calls on Japan to adopt additional regulatory reforms in key sectors and structural areas of the Japanese economy. This year's report includes new sections on information technology and proposed revisions to Japan's Commercial Code.The report underscores USTR's deep concern with barriers in Japan's $130 billion telecommunications sector. Competition in this sector has been stifled due to the absence of an independent regulator; weak dominant carrier regulation; high interconnection rates for both wired and wireless services; and inadequate access to rights-of-way, facilities and other services to competitors. We are concerned about the increase in barriers to Japan's agricultural market, including the level of access for U. S. rice. Japan also needs to comply wi th a WTO ruling in favor of the United States on varietals testing.Korea: Korea is one of the United States' major trading partners, and President Kim Dae Jung has made some progress toward a more open, market-oriented economic policy. However, Korea continues to impose significant barriers to U. S. imports. Korea's high tariffs and related taxes, and anti-import biases, combine to restrict seriously access for U. S. exports. Korea's auto market remains virtually closed to U. S. companies. Korea also imposes high duties and maintains other barriers on many agricultural and fishery products.The United States has expressed its concern to the Korean Government about the negative implications of recent government-directed lending on the country's restructuring efforts, and the potential inconsistency of this action with its WTO commitments. Inadequate protection of intellectual property rights continues to be a serious problem in Korea. USTR has long-standing concerns about the Korean G overnment's involvement in, and support for the Korean steel industry. Mexico: Mexico is the United States' second largest bilateral trading partner, and has been the fastest growing major U.S. export market over the last seven years. USTR welcomes Mexico's progress in promoting competition in its $12 billion telecommunications market. However, Mexico has not addressed certain outstanding issues subject to its WTO commitments. It has failed to ensure competition in its market for international services. Unfavorable quotas and embargos Quotas place limits on how much of a good can be brought into a country. Observers in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa have frequently inveighed against U. S. trade sanctions policies aimed at punishing regimes in Cuba, Iran and Libya.They argue that sanctions and embargos have not brought the desired results, and that the Cuban, Iranian and Libyan people, rather than governments are the ones who suffer. Pundits overseas strongly support European Union retaliatory efforts designed to combat the Helms-Burton Act which allows U. S. citizens to sue foreign companies using property in Cuba confiscated from them after Fidel Castro seized power in 1959. The EU efforts includes request for the formation of a WTO dispute panel. Complaints that the Helms-Burton Act â€Å"conflicts with rules for international trade,† is â€Å"extra-territorial† in dimension, approaching â€Å"trade terrorism†.Analysts hold the strong objection against actions taken by America's allies over the sanctions issue reveals the extent of European â€Å"frustration† with the U. S. over trade issues and signals. Europe's new-found resolve to challenge the world's leading economic power. Berlin's left-of-center Die Tageszeitung, for example, held, â€Å"For more than 50 years, the U. S. has determined the rules of the global economy according to its taste. Only in recent times have the view grown in the EU that a common Europe is strong enough to have a say on an equal basis.† Criticism of the U. S. strategy, however, did not inspire observers in the press to offer other alternatives on how to promote the U. S. -stated goal of encouraging greater respect for human rights and democracy, and discouraging state-sponsored terrorism in suspect nations. This may be a good time to reinforce the idea that trade barriers are designed to protect some industries but, in fact they may hurt other industries or even consumers. Economists have found that sanctions don't often reach their political objectives and they come with high costs.A good example is the steel tariff imposed by the Bush administration, on foreign-made steel. President Bush imposed the tariffs, ranging from 8 percent to 30 percent, on some kinds of foreign steel in March 2002, in order to help the U. S. steel industry compete with foreign steel producers. Many U. S. manufacturing companies that use steel, including manufacturers of auto parts and appliances, say that the steel tariffs have raised costs for manufacturers and caused thousands of manufacturing losses. Also, people who buy cars or appliances may have to pay higher prices because of the steel tariffs.The U. S. International Trade Commission recently concluded that the tariffs have caused a $30 million net loss to the U. S. economy. In addition, the European Union is considering retaliatory tariffs against the U. S. High costs of customs administration Customs procedures for imports are time-consuming. Generally, over 10 steps are required for a typical import clearance transaction. Besides, the trade facilitation institutions are not in one place, which makes the clearance more complicated. The Kenya Customs requires more than 20 copies of bills of documents to be passed from one officer to another.The documents are not only processed slowly, but also sometimes subject to repeated examination. Similar procedures are also applied on paying of tax refunds and obta ining tax waivers and rebates on imports used for manufacture. To inspect imports, the Kenyan Customs opens almost every container, the practice of which not only delays the goods from passing the Customs, but also increases the likelihood of breakage. Customs valuation Though Kenya has implemented the Agreement on Customs Valuation since 2001, customs officials constantly uplift the declared valuation of goods instead of using the c.i. f. value provided or the supplier's invoice, which usually results in a completely higher tax liability. Information on custom valuation methods and tariffs are not disclosed. Additionally, importers are hard to question the tax liability, because the clearance process will be delayed when a dispute of valuation occurs and the high demurrage costs arising there from exert a heavy burden on the importer. Pre-shipment inspection As from June 30, 2005, pre-inspection certification is required for goods to be imported into Kenya.All goods must demonstrat e compliance with Kenya Standards or approved equivalents by evidence of a â€Å"Test Report or Certificate† from an ISO/IEC17025 accredited laboratory or recognized by the ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation) or the IFIA (International Federation of Inspection Agencies). Goods imported without the above mentioned certificates or reports would be held at the port of entry at the importer's expense until their quality is determined. The new regulation has significantly affected the export of Chinese products to Kenya in the following two aspects.First, the quality certification has led to a substantial increase in the export cost. According to this regulation, all products to be exported to Kenya must obtain test reports or certificates from approved organizations. However, the Kenyan Market requires a small quantity of a great variety of goods and products. If every product needs a test report, then the cost will be greatly increased. Second, the Kenya Bu reau of Standards has assigned the certification of Chinese products to Intertek Testing Services, a company that monopolizes product testing and is known for its low efficiency.

Digital Education

Essay On Online Vs Traditional Education Working adults and stay-home parents looking to further their education may use online education as a resourceful tool to extract a better learning environment. In today’s society, online education is designed specifically for working adults and stay home parents with busy schedules and social responsibility. Some employers are now demanding more education from their employees along with in field experience than ever before and the job market is increasing competitive for those who want to succeed in their career.Traditional Learning provides the oldest method of education. Allowing the student to see the professor face to face and ask pertinent questions concerning their classes. Students have the ability to meet with other students for study groups and friendship. During my research, students who choose the traditional method of education believed that the face-to-face students enjoy the ability to learn with others, allows for class instruction, presentations, live speaking and they love the ability to get to know their instructors. Relevant materials: How Businesses Can Learn From Text MiningStudents in the face-to-face courses are able to get together in study groups that help them achieve better in testing. On-line Learning provides new age technology to widen the educational scope. With new age technology, I sense enormous excitement about the promise of online learning to prepare today’s students to succeed in an increasingly technology-driven global economy. Prospective students are facing a new kind of college experience — online education. It employs portable devices, computers and PDA’s to facilitate learning.With advances in information technology, portable devices, computers and PDA’s have traditionally been seen as a way of carrying information in a more convenient format, with longer battery life than a laptop computer and less weight than a bag full of reference books. Virtual classroom settings and message boards offer a variety of learning techniques. A setting usually contains an electronic whiteboard. The instructor presents instruction and interacts with students in real-time. Virtual classrooms include chat functions and often the ability for participants to speak to one another.It also, it allows student to learning without having to commute. For those students who are not able to attend their regular classes and colleges can easily carry with their higher education through online education mode of study. Students can create study environment of their like, they can make their own schedule; they can carry education while on the move, along with business they can pursue with their higher education. Best practices, a sustainable effort to extract and establish the best learning environment.Online is a quickly growing means of education for all students. It allows students to work and learn at their own pace without the unyielding time restrictions of traditional learning. Online education provides access to learning materials at any time. This allows students the flexibility to schedule their learning around families, jobs and other activities. Technology also provides accessibility and time management. Working while going to school is the potential applicability that studies may have on your job.In other words, it’s one thing to go to class and learn about something in theory, and it’s another to take that theory and put it into practice. Students who work can apply their newly acquired knowledge immediately to their jobs; they can also focus their studies on the kinds of real-world problems that professionals face daily in the workplace. It collaborates both students and teachers just alike from across the globe. No technological invention in the history of man has connected the people of the world like the Internet.While there is still a huge disparity between those who have access to the Internet and those who don't, the mere fact that any of us can communicate across the globe speaks to the importance of this medium. Many times the web sites we visit in a course are based in another country. What better place to find out about the works of Michelangelo than to go to Italy (virtually, of course)? What better way to learn about the Amazon rain forest or the history of China or the customs of islanders in the South Pacific than to visit those places online?And if you participate in global learning days or other online events, you may even meet and make friends with someone in another country. It is a small world, after all. The point is that we live in a diverse-changing world that is ripe with new possibility. The ability to learn new information or a new skill whenever you want and wherever you want offers far greater opportunities for education than ever before. The scope and reach of education broadens to far greater horizons that perhaps ever imagined. ______________________________________________REVIEW I'd like to begin, if I may, by just clearing up a couple of things. Onlin e education is not a tool to extract a better learning environment. Learning environments aren't extracted with tools. A spade, however, is a tool that can be used to extract a potato from the ground. The important thing to know about potatoes, however, is that whether they are good or blighted is independent of the specific tool of extraction. Online education is also not one thing. The Khan Academy provides free educational videos.Stanford provides free online educational courses. EssayJudge. com provides brilliantly insightful reviews. (Honest! ) Then there's a galaxy of pseudo-educational sites and lousy overpriced university sites and fraudulent degree mills for the gullible and the desperate and the cheaters and the pretentious and the ne'er-do-wells. So if you want to compare online education with traditional education, you need to be clearer about what exactly you mean by online education. Online education facilitates plagiarism.For instance you can go to sites that list the seven benefits of online education or the ten advantages of online courses and then cut and paste into your own essay, without attribution, vapid sentences like: â€Å"What better way to learn about the Amazon rain forest or the history of China or the customs of islanders in the South Pacific than to visit those places online? † or â€Å"Students who work can apply their newly acquired knowledge immediately to their jobs; they can also focus their studies on the kinds of real-world problems that professionals face daily in the workplace. â€Å"

HUM 112 Assigment 2 Essay - 1609 Words

Assignment 2: Project Paper Edwin D Giraldo Professor: Ibrahim H Alsaeed, Ph.D. HUM 112 11/29/14 Abstract In this paper, I choose to discuss three pieces of art from the 19th century Impressionist period and three from the Post-Impressionist period and how these six pieces of art compare to each style. Then I will draft a memo to the CEO of my company to describe the appearance, so that they will have an idea of what the art looks like and where it should be placed throughout the corporate offices. Next, we are going to explain the historical significance for each piece of artwork that I choose. Finally, I will descried to the CEO of my company how each piece of art matches the company’s overall image. Office†¦show more content†¦As for placement of the last three paintings, I decided to put the A Lion Devouring its Prey in the central work area to show the employees that hard work and dedication will get them the rewards that they deserve for they have done for the company, the next one, In the Oise in the Valley, could be placed in the main break room of the company, so that the employees have a place to relax and not be disturbed in order to get away from the regular environment that any workplace create, even though just for a little while from their rigorous job, and The Yellow Books could be placed where the company keeps all its information on the business to represent how the business conducts itself and what the future holds for the business and all the customers. Explain why each piece is considered to be historically significant. Pierre Auguste Renoir made his mark historically on the surfaces of his paintings by using small dabs of pigment that were applied uniformly, but his brush strokes were somewhat nervous, but yet he used the sunlight effects that were achieved with colored shadows, and loose brushwork.