My Personal Experience of a Writing Situation at the...

I once had to write a letter to employees in my company as I worked as an assistant to someone in a high position explaining to them why a certain room that used to be a break room was now off limits to them. What had happened is that there were employees who were abusing their privileges in the break room. Some had stolen soda from a refrigerator as well as some beer that was put in there for special meetings that my boss had with individuals coming to the company. People were aware that while they were allowed to use the break room to eat lunch or drink a coffee on their break, they were not, however, allowed to go into the refrigerator. There were two or three warnings that were given and then I got the word from my boss to write a letter to all employees telling them why they were no longer allowed to use the room. In this letter, I essentially had to persuade people of the fact that there was harm done. I had heard around the office that many individuals were up in arms about th e fact that my boss was so upset about the missing beverages. They believed that the company was stable enough (i.e. wealthy enough) to offer their employees free beverages and they didnt understand what the big deal was about. My orders were to write a letter explaining that the privileges were being revoked, why the were being revoked, as well as explain how it was morally wrong to steal from a company. In essence, I had to persuade the other employees of their wrongdoing. Right off the batShow MoreRelatedAdvantages And Disadvantages Of An Organization1675 Words   |  7 Pagesfind two individuals who are exactly alike when referring to the way of thinking and interpreting many things. People may come from the same background, but tend to have different perspectives about certain situations. Culture is defined in many ways and can be defined differently in the workplace, in a family, or at a restaurant. As stated before, people can obtain a certain culture. Different generations may inherit the same culture, and an organization may have a certain culture they practice. Read MorePersonal Statement For Nursing Leadership962 Words   |  4 Pagesnursing careers we have come into a situation where we needed to advocate for our patient or co-worker. It takes leadership skills, respect, and accountability to advocate in our workplace. Moreover, in order to create change one must first evaluate the issue then set goals to implement the plan. The purpose of this paper is to discuss my weaknesses and strengths to nursing, use of current leadership skills to advocate change in the workplace, and reflection on personal goal for leadership growth andRead MoreUnit 2 Business Resources1106 Words   |  5 PagesBusiness. My first task will be to create a visually appealing leaflet describing the documentation needed in the recruitment process for a finance worker. 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Key words pertaining to one’s desired field are crucial when describing one’s job title, abilities, and accreditations. A custom URL makes one stand out more and match other online profiles. Headlines need to be noteworthy. Summaries should be written in first person and should describe one’s values. o LinkedIn recommended on their 2015 suggestionsRead MoreHow Personal Responsibility Will Lead to My Success Essay1089 Words   |  5 PagesHow Personal Responsibility Will Lead to My Success Personal responsibility means to me holding yourself accountable for not only the successes in your life but also your downfalls. If a person can do this they will not only be successful in their education but in their careers and life in general. Even though some people who lack personal responsibility do just fine in life, personal responsibility will lead to my success in and beyond school because it gives me the confidence to succeed,Read MoreUnit 11359 Words   |  6 Pagesand information - to reassure, give encouragement - to express feelings, emotions - to build relationships - to socialize - to ask questions - to share experiences and knowledge. Communication is an essential tool I can use to meet the needs of patients.  It is a basic requirement of my job role to communicate with individuals and their families, other members of staff on a daily basis. At work place we use different ways to communicate: - verbal communication:Read MorePERSONALITY, ATTITUDES AND JOB PERFORMANCE1021 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿ Brainstorming Danika George BU105 W15 Section 7 Management Principles Dwayne Payne March 29, 2015 Miller-Motte College Online Programs I will be writing my paper on personality, attitudes, and job performance. This subject(s) caught my eye because I am currently working in a job (field) where I deal with people every day. We all have different personalities and attitudes and we all have to learn how to deal with them if we are going to manage or work in these types of environments. Also

Poetry Is Not Just The Vision Of The Writer - 1036 Words

Poetry exists at a junction between language and state of mind. Poetry is not just the vision of the writer put to a page, meant to evoke and inspire readers. Poetry is thoughts concealed given breath—a story reflecting the interior landscape of the mind. Just as it can be a breath of air, poetry can grip the heart—the mind can be an awfully dark place. Within gothic poetry the horror and fears of the poet lie just beyond the words of the poem itself. The words are emotional viscera given form. Poetry is aesthetic and inspiring and its brevity extends it to forms beyond itself. The works of romantic poets have been recycled and reimagined as a result of our continued love affair with the ideas of the gothic and supernatural. The works of†¦show more content†¦Films, music, video games, opera, art, and comics are all belonging together within the same family. Each of these creative modes utilizes the gothic in new ways though they all give viewers the experience of the sublime. They continue to shock us out of the limits of our everyday lives with the possibility of things beyond reason and explanation, through the shape of awesome characters, terrifying scenes, and inexplicable and profound events. This literary movement continues to affect the creative world today because its deep connection to the surreal. This, when raised to the level of poetry, reveals the very essence of the genre: an expression of the range, gall, depth, and visceral power of the human imagination. Gothic literature itself owes much to its roots and to Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto—a story incorporating the supernatural, cursed lords, monks, princesses, romantic love, and gloomy castles, and other elements that essentially constitute the genre. In its second edition, titled A Gothic Story, Walpole’s novel consolidates the fanciful element medieval romance with the realism of the modern novel—finding an intermediary point that cr eated many other staple traits of gothic literature that would come to influence and draw the attention of many writers. â€Å"Like most terms denoting genre or periodization, ‘gothic’ is retrospective, coined in Britain after its referents had come to dominate the shelves of circulating libraries and the boards of the

Statistics and the Evaluation of Evidence

Question: Discuss about the Statistics and the Evaluation of Evidence. Answer: Introduction: Nicole and O.J. Brown got married on 2nd February in the year 1985 after he retired from his professional football for about five years. They had two children, S.B. Simpson and J.R. Simpson. The marriage life of the couple lasted for three years where Nichole Brown complained about domestic violence, and the police were found investigating on that matter. Lastly, Mrs Brown filed a divorce against her husband on the ground of "irreconcilable differences" on 25th February 1992. The term of citing irreconcilable differences is a rule in Australia providing possible grounds for divorce for quantity of jurisdictions. According to the Australian family law, the couple can file a divorce because they have been estranged couple and stayed separated or nearly or more than twelve months. So, to sum up, it is observed that every irrevocable condition or the conditions that cannot get reconciled, then the irreconcilable differences take place that requires waiting period or mutual consent. Discussion: The matter of Nichole Brown and O.J. Simpson came in the limelight because of the murder case that took place on June 13, 1994, where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found murdered. The incident took place in theBrentwoodarea of Los Angeles. Nicole Brown was found dead with multiple wounds on her head and neck resulting from multiple stabbing and even had some defensive wounds on her hands. Keeping the records of the incident, the investigators took up some of the elements that would help them to bring a conclusion to the investigation. Crucial elements for investigating process relevant to trial proceedings: The investigation focus on the Simpson case included the questioning to Simpson by the Los Angeles Police for about more than half an hour on 2nd June 1994. The Department put emphasizes on the deep cut on his right hand and asked him numerous questions about the cut. In the initial stage, he repeatedly claimed about his being unaware of the cut but later he admitted the cause of the wound (Hunt, 1999). In the later stage, he explained that the cut happened due to the breaking of the glass of his Bronco at the night when he was informed about the murder of Nichole Brown. The investigators found out some physical evidence from the case near the victim's body. The contents of the physical evidence are located in the grounds of Simpson's estate and also near victim's body. The findings included two leather gloves one of which remained beside the body and other within the estate. The main area of investigation included that whether they are the same pair of gloves which means are the glove related with the other pair or is identical; but a different pair. The DNA evidence was another important fact of evidence (Aitken Taroni, 2004). The investigators collected the samples of the footprints that lead away from the body. The team also took evidence from the condominium so as to see if anything matches between the two samples. The samples were brought in to undergo some Initialpolymerase chain reactionwhich did not suspect Simpson in the first place. But there were some matching composites found from the bloody shoe prints and the samples in front of the gate. Apart from what is found in front of the victims body, the investigators also found out some more evidence that was submitted to the jurists. So on one of the hearing, Ross Cutlery showed some store receipt that indicated Simpson buying of the 12-inch (305 mm) stiletto knife six weeks before the occurrence of the murder. The investigators also found the strands of hair on Goldmans shirt that were consistent with Simpson. The investigators also focused on the gathering of several coins covered with fresh blood drops behind the Browns condo, where they parked the car. The investigators also found gloves containing the particles of the hair and the cap contained carpet fibres similar to the fibres of Simpson's Bronco. One of the black knit knife caps contained the strands of African-American hair. Some dark blue strands of the cloth fibre were found on the body of Brownman, which the witness confirmed that Simpson wore something similar on that night. Major errors/ flaws/ weakness of the case: The OJ Simpson case taught the police not to carry on certain activities while going on with the research. During the trial, the defense attorney for the Simpson case found out some gaps in the prosecution case after observing some problems by the Los Angeles Police Department while handling with the evidence. The officers did not even ask him the general follow-up questions required to ask at that time to extract the truth. The officers were only concerned about the deep red cut and got convinced with the reply by Simpson. They did not even ask the reason why he denied of being unknown to the source of the cut in the initial stage of questioning. The timing of the incident that took place is paramount while making an investigation. One of the weak points the case of Simpson is that the jurists were easily convinced with the mentioned time. The contents were not even gone for the autopsy so that the organic contents could be examined which would help to define the exact time of the murder. The investigators only focused on the questioning of the accused. The possible things which are required while examining a witness are their mental capacity and how much reliable their memory was. The Spanish speaking witness told the investigators that she heard some sounds in the backyard of the Simpsons family. Later she confirmed that the investigators took note of it but never came back for further questioning or giving any feedback. The facts of less concentration to what the witnesses explained led Simpson out of the trial (Thagard, 2003). Recommendations for the errors to be avoided during a criminal investigation: On 13th June 1994, one of the LAPD evidence file photos shows that Mark Fuhrman a member of Los Angeles Police Dept. shows some pieces of evidence near the body of Nicole Brown Simpson. The evidence showed some bloodstained footprints or the walkway of the condominium. Possible missed evidence is regarding the time of the death of the victim when any incident or accidents take place (Cotterill, 2002). The time of the death of the victim solves many problems, and a mere assumption can lead to the opposite. It is always advisable that to carry out an investigation; it is important to send the body for an autopsy that will examine the stomach contents. The examination can further lead to the appropriate and perfect timing which can open up different sides of the case that remained undisclosed. The witness issue is the most critical issue of the case. When the Spanish-speaking lady confirmed about the happenings at that time, the police noted down the facts and without further questioning they went back. It is important to keep track of the witnesses and not just rely on one statement to strengthen a case (Fisher et al., 1997). The lady even said that the investigators never came back after one session with her, and that led her to confusion. It was even found out while going through the case that not all the pieces of evidence were handed to the jury, explaining the money power of some people. It is advisable to remain unbiased while making the decision. Influence of media on the outcome of the case: Media is a mass form of communication and is likely to influence the views of the common people, and when the celebrity comes in that, they are portrayed either negatively or positively (Weston, 1995). The extensive coverage by the media on stories that involves the court can highly alter the court decision which occurred in the matter of OJ Simpson as witnessed in the murder trial. After having a thorough look at the medias part in the case, the primary fact that came up is, the media affected the trial issue by highlighting it as a race issue. The impact of the case is such that the media went on saying that can be black people get fair justice, hinting towards racialism (Williams, 2001). The comment of the media made the common people believe that Simpson is a victim of racialism and that he is innocent in a real sense. The people forecasted their concentration on the biased police and the jurists. The confusion of the views of the people had led a compulsory entry to the courtroom while the trial was going on. The ongoing trial faced a lot of difficulties to be carried on as the media published such stories before confirming the actual fact. It is an imperative issue here that the jurors are likely to get influenced by the media coverage since they were under continuous watch of the media. The jurors in the courtroom may decide a different order while after going home and watching the news can make them alter it since most of the public supported the issue. The jurors feel that the Americans public opinion plays an important and passing a different issue may give rise to some internal confusion. The extensive media coverage can influence the jurors in such a manner that they take decisions which goes sometimes against the American Court System. The impact leads to such a decision which is reached by wrong means, as in the case of OJ Simpson. The media must be professional in the way of viewing a matter as when they do not allow the court to do their work, which leads to some unlawful judgment. The judges were quite concerned about the infamous Bronco car chase by the police in slow motion as well as the gloves scene in the court room. Another controversy that came up regarding the media coverage and its impact on the case is that the court allowed entry of camera inside the trial room. Initially, that was a huge question, whether the allowing of the camera inside the courtroom can be permitted or not. Later, the media won the issue and the coverage through the camera could be warranted (Furno-Lamude, 1999). Although the jurists were criticized for allowing the entry of the camera within the courtroom, they admitted that they felt some pressure due to the presence of media and had to allow them. The media coverage, however, gave a massive amount of news feed to the common people that gave them the chance to go insight of the matter. The court is not supposed to allow any media or entertain them within the court room. The immense involvement of the media made the court to alter their decision about allowing the camera within the courtroom. The matter was as clear to decide OJ Simpson being a murderer. But the matter mostly ended with some bargaining in the compensation for the loss of the two victims that includes OJ Simpsons ex-wife and her friend. Conclusion: While drawing a conclusion on the case of the Simpson, it is clear that the evidence placed in front of the jurists plays a major role in the decision of the matter. But the major acquittal of this case is that the defence was successfully neutralised the DNA evidence against him. The most important battle over the DNA was that how poorly it was placed for the trial to carry out. So, while making a study about the case of Simpson, it is important to put emphasise on the use of the evidence and the way it can get alternated. The problems that arose, in this case, conclude that it is a mere cautionary tale. The risks of using controversial methods sometimes outstate the value harming the defendant. References: Aitken, C. G., Taroni, F. (2004).Statistics and the Evaluation of evidence for forensic scientists(Vol. 16). Chichester: Wiley. Cotterill, J. (2002). Just one more time: aspects of intertextuality in the trials of OJ Simpson. InLanguage in the legal process(pp. 147-161). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Fisher, G., Bugliosi, V., Cochran, J. L., Rutten, T., Cooley, A., Bess, C., ... Dershowitz, A. M. (1997). The OJ Simpson Corpus. Furno-Lamude, D. (1999). The media spectacle and the OJ Simpson case.The OJ Simpson trials: Rhetoric, media and the law, 19-35. Hunt, D. M. (1999).OJ Simpson facts and fictions: News rituals in the construction of reality. Cambridge University Press. Thagard, P. (2003). Why wasn't OJ convicted? Emotional coherence in legal inference.Cognition Emotion,17(3), 361-383. Weston, C. H. (1995). Orenthal James Simpson and Gender, Class, and Race: In that Order.Hastings Women's LJ,6, 223. Williams, L. (2001).Playing the race card: Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to OJ Simpson(Vol. 134). Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Internet Domain Business Essays - Domain Name System, Domain Name

Internet Domain Business The companies who want to acquire Internet address are facing many difficulties nowadays. There is clearly an excess of demand in domain name business. The prices of effective Web-site addresses have become very expensive. Initially, there were so-called cybersquatters, speculators, who brought attention to the Internet domain name business. They registered well-known brand names with the intention of selling them at much higher price. For example, they bought the URL www.McDonalds.com and sold it to the company afterwards. Registering an URL with the ending .com, .net, and .org costs only $70 today. But there are already over 6 million names that have been registered, so companies or people who want their own Internet address usually discover that the domain they want is already taken. If all the simpler and shorter names are registered, the newcomers have to find longer words that are suitable for them or combine some words together. That is the reason why domains have become so valuable, because for marketing purposes, memorable names are more demanded. Companies want their customers to have direct access to their Web page just by typing in the short URL. If they do not have a good Web site address, the search for its name results in numerous misleading results. Even if the company's Web page is found, the brand recognition gets very weak, because of so many similar names the result shows. "Javed recently completed a study of business names on the Internet that illustrates the point. He found 8,793 names containing the word "web" (including Webtron, USWeb, and Webtech) and 7,901 names with the word "link" (like Linknet, WorldLink, Linksys)" (Hadekel 1). The short and noticeable names like Nike or Sony are much better off. The number of existing names make also the life of those businesses difficult that are specialized on selecting names for businesses and their products. They have to make up names that are globally readable in different countries and areas of world, without any translation problems or trademark conflicts, are memorable and last but not the least, have available domain names. So far, the record price that is paid for a domain name is $7.5 million. An entrepreneur, Marc Ostrofsky had bought it three years ago, and now sold it to ECompanies. This event gives some insight to how valuable Internet addresses really are. In public eyes it is still seen as a very extraordinary purchase, but experts argue that in long run, this kind of deals become as common as real estate business exchanges. As real estate broker Steve Newman puts it, "It used to be a big deal when a house sold in Beverly Hills for $1 million, but people aren't shocked anymore that a house sold for $1 million" (Kaplan 1). A new business type has arisen from this problem of domain name shortage, brokers who sell Internet domain names. The largest enterprise in this area is GreatDomains.com. The sellers can post their listings at their Web-site and the company collects a 7% to 15% commission and a $250 escrow fee from the seller. The GreatDomains' revenue is growing fast. The risk for the companies that sell Internet addresses is that when there will be available new domain name suffixes, for example .biz and .store, the supply will exceed demand. This means that people have more variety of names from which to choose and they are not willing to pay so high prices anymore. For the conclusion, the Internet domain name business, that initially seemed questionable to many people, has proved to be profitable business that is in growing stage. It seems to continue at this rate for at least some more years. Although the every day Internet users may not even be aware of the struggle the companies have had to get a best domain name, they take advantage of this feature and make this effort worthy.

King Lear Stupidity Essays - British Films, English-language Films

King Lear Stupidity There has always been a perpetual jester in a kingly court. Often he has provided entertainment via his superficial jokes and has won the good graces of his master by creating an atmosphere of ebullience and joviality. Rarely has there existed a fool of such vivacious and rudiment cruelty, practicality and unprecedented common sense as the fool of William Shakespeare's King Lear. This fool is blessed with a mellifluous voice of nonsensical reason, which he uses throughout the play as a function of perpetuating Lear's madness to the point of a complete metamorphosis and the conception of clarity of mind. The fool's original and supposed role is that of entertainer; although Lear's Fool is a more convoluted version, as he is an ironical paradox of love, cruelty and is filled with didactic perspicacity. One is able to see his practicality, as well as his affection for Lear when he urges the King to come out of the storm: "Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters blessing." (III, ii, 11) The Fool primarily recognizes the severity of the storm, and advises Lear to forget his pride, so that he may enjoy a comfortable surrounding. "Here's a night pities neither wise men nor fools" (III, ii, 12) is the subsequent line, which contains a subjective insult; whereby the distinction of who is the wise man and who is the fool is dubitable. A direct affront to the King, one that is immersed in truth and sagacity, occurs in Act I, Scene IV when the Fool proclaims to Lear: "I had rather be any kind o'thing than a fool, and yet I would not be thee, nuncle." (I, iv, 176) This comment is contrived due to Lear's folly in partitioning the kingdom, his relinquishment of his land, and the sanction for his daughters to take power. The Fool attempts to make Lear ascertain his folly, but it is too early for such cognizance. When he realizes this, the Fool tells Lear: "I am better than thou art now. I am a fool, thou art nothing." (I, iv, 184) By pointing out his superiority to the King, he cruelly underscores Lear's senility, while returning to the continuous theme of "nothing," constructed wholly by Lear. The gratuitous quality of his comments, as well as Lear's seeming disregard for them and his continuous insistence of treating the Fool as though he were his child accentuate the Fool's cruelty. The Fool acts as a way to quantify the king's sanity. Lear's madness (increases) overtly throughout the play, and the fool's presence emphasizes the moments where an alteration in Lear's state of mind in revealed. At the end of Act 1, Lear almost strikes the fool after he tells the king: "Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise." (I, v, 41) The Fool, however, is under the aegis of the gods as discussed earlier, so Lear would in fact be mad if he were to abuse him. Lear suddenly backs off, revealing a semblance of some sanity, and then professes: "Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!" (I, v, 43) In a similar declaration, Lear says: "O Fool, I shall go mad." (II, ii, 475) after he speaks of committing revenge upon his daughters. The Fool has been silent for some time, as it seems that Lear owns the necessary insight to perceive the future - a role which the Fool has previously made his own. Lear's fool is untouchable as the insightful, wise and holy fool who is under the protection of the gods or some prophetic powers, and is the "all licensed jester." Child-like in his character, loved, pampered and indulged he enjoys the King's good graces despite his continuous devastating remarks. He often tells Lear "I'll teach you" or "you were foolish and still are." This omnipresent exhibition of superiority of a jester over his king could be punished; instead it is embraced. The fool talks to the king as though Lear was his fool: Fool: Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a bitter fool and a sweet one? Lear: No, Lad, teach me. Lear joins in the game by allowing it and humors the Fool; which equates him with being the Fool's entertainer, and therefore the Fool's fool. Despite this twisted relationship, Lear also acts as the guardian of the Fool. In one scene, Goneril asks Oswald if her "father [struck her] gentleman for chiding of his fool." (I, iii, 1.) Lear institutes physical violence to protect the precious fool;

Gothic Horror Story Essays

Gothic Horror Story Essays Gothic Horror Story Essay Gothic Horror Story Essay The cask of Amontillado , Von Kennel and The Black Cat all share similar elements of the typical gothic horror story. Three elements that they all share are a typical gothic setting, women as victims, and madness/derangement on the part of the narrator or mall character. In The Masque of the Red Death Poe creates a gothic horror setting by using a lot of dark imagery. He describes the Princes castle as a dark, secluded abbey. But, we dont know where it is located or where the storys set, leaving no ties to the real world. The castle has seven rooms that are all have different color themes: blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet. The seventh room however doesnt particularly follow this color scheme. Its all black with deep blood red colored windows, creating an eerie effect when the candlelight shines through. It also has a threatening clock that chimes every hour. This last room is different than the rest of the rooms because it symbolizes death. Poe chose to design the rooms the way he did to symbolize life to death, the flirts blue room being birth and the last black room being death. : The castle itself Is supposed to be a safe place for the healthy to party away from the dying people on the outside. The truth Is Its not actually safe; they are trapped Inside the insane Princes castle. All of these things support the gothic setting that Poe has Prince Prospers supports Popes use of giving the main character a mad or deranged personality. The narrator basically informs us that the Prince might be insane by stating, There are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not. First of all, he lives in a secluded castle set off from the rest of his kingdom. This shows us that he clearly doesnt care about his subjects. If he was a good ruler he would keep his home near them so that he could be aware of what they are up to. He has a very fancy artistic taste with a strange love of all things bizarre. He loves to live in the good and ignore all of the bad. This would explain why he would have a masquerade inside his castle while the rest of his kingdom is dying on the outside. Prince Prospers doesnt even want to think about all that is going wrong. He is so selfish that he locks all of the sick, dying people out while he celebrates inside his castle. Although, we get some indication in the story that a lot of this may not even be real. It may Just be entirely Prince Prospered visions/dreams, and all of the events and characters are Just figments of his imagination. However, we dont know this for sure. But, if it is true, then that Just supports how crazy he really is. There is a strange man in a suit and a mask who appears towards the end of the story, and no one could seem to get rid of him. People tried to grab him and see who was behind the mask, but no one was there. This is evidence of a supernatural force. The figure is described as tall and gaunt and blood-spattered. He appears right before the last stoke of the clock which is counting down to death. We believe that this supernatural figure represents the red death itself. Poe created this figure to show that no matter what you do, you cant escape death. You cannot avoid fate, and all of the people in this story were destined to die eventually. The plot in The Tell-Tale Heart is revolved around an insane individual who kills an old man because of his Multitude eye. The setting is described as black as pitch with the thick darkness, creating an eerie mood. There is a vague description of the action and the house where the story takes place, leaving you wondering. This all supports the typical gothic setting that Poe created. The main character in this story insists that he is sane, which basically proves that he is not. He sneaks into an old mans bedroom every night at midnight, which shows he is clearly deranged. He doesnt like this man because of his pale blue eye, with a film over it, that apparently looks similar to the eye of a vulture. One of the nights that he sneaks into the old mans room he hears what he believes to be the old mans heartbeat, getting louder, louder.. Louder. He feels that is it getting so loud hat the neighbors may hear it, and he must kill him to get it to stop. He crushes him with a mattress until he suffocates and then dismembers the body and stuffs him under the floorboards. He later turns himself into the police because he thinks that they can hear the dead old mans heartbeat from the floorboards underneath. The haunting of the old mans heart is possibly evidence of the supernatural. The fact that it was audible underneath the floorboards even though the man was deceased suggests that there may have been a supernatural force. The old man could have been haunting him for what he did on purpose. Poe did this to show exactly insane the old man is that he thought he could actually hear his heartbeat A gothic setting is used in The Black Cat to show man-kinds dark side. Black cats are known for bad luck and superstitions, and Poe purposefully used this cat to create an eerie mood. The setting is described as dark and shadowy. There are many different settings in this story, although none of them have much physical description. This story is written from the main characters Jail cell, explaining all of the events that led him to imprisonment. Murder also occurs in this story, giving more proof of a gothic setting. The main character in this story used to have a nice personality. He was kind to everyone and was very loving. Then, he became an alcoholic. He became very violent and ill-tempered, and abused his wife and pets. He eventually kills his pet black cat, which he now believes is haunting him. He sees it all the time, and each time the cat appears in smaller and smaller places. He also later kills his wife, and hides her in one of the walls in his home. All of these things prove that there is clearly something wrong with the main character, and he is definitely insane. The main character keeps seeing visions of a black cat. It will appear, disappear, and then reappear, tormenting and reminding him of his evil deed. He believes that this is the ghost of his cat that he killed. Then, the mans house burns down, and the only wall left standing is the one where he hid his dead wife. The police discover this and arrest the man. This shows that there may be evidence of the supernatural. His house mysteriously burnt down and that Just happened to be the only wall left. His wife may be haunting him from the dead, making sure that he would be punished for what he did. The Cask of Amontillado uses a typical gothic horror setting throughout the story.

Industrial action Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Industrial action - Essay Example If we are to look into this problem 17 years ago, it was stated that A 1990 survey of working time found that just over one in 16 employees in Britain had their working hours calculated on an annual basis.(1) At present there are a lot of workers that are being paid in output basis rather than the time they consume to finish the work. These works includes the likes of care giving, freelance jobs, journalists and the likes. The kind of workers that are included in these fields are paid in an output basis which most of the companies does, because according to the companies, these people are not required to attend regular working hours and the hours that they consume in fulfilling their tasks are not that identical and this prompted these companies were compelled to do such acts. However, this scheme was not accepted by majority of the workers and this scenario oftentimes creates conflicts and clashes between the workers and the employers. There are accounts that workers are either offered with favorable amount in order for the companies’ make the workers feel that they are compensated. In this way, the workers would think twice in bringing work related matters to the court, particularly the rights of the workers that are deprived by some of the employers. However, workers and managers must know their duties and their limitations. Furthermore, Abramson claimed this vintage virtue stating â€Å"Wherever authoritative roles exist, they differentiate between those who command and those who obey. Moreover, in any organization we can differentiate between those who participate in the hierarchy of command, regardless of their position in this hierarchy, and those who are subordinate.† This means that whatever the circumstance, the workers must comply with the kind of leadership his manager employs. If we are to base it in a British management perspective which deals with relationship with

Pluralism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Pluralism - Essay Example de Silva, in his article 'Elements of Sound Industrial System', published in International Labour Organisation, ACT/EMP, says "A sound industrial relations system is one in which relationships between management and employees (and their representatives) on the one hand, and between them and the State on the other, are more harmonious and cooperative than conflictual and creates an environment conducive to economic efficiency and the motivation, productivity and development of the employee and generates employee loyalty and mutual trust.1" Industrial relations were not static, but altered with social, economical and political changes and went through many phases. The first one came under the guise of Communism, initiated by Karl Marx, practised by communist countries and it focussed on totalitarianism, not pluralism. After many decades of absolute success in all communist countries, it spread to other democratic and capitalistic countries, in the form of unions, who could negotiate on behalf of workers, depending on the circumstantial influences. In his paper 'The Changing Focus of Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management, presented at ILO Workshop on employers' Organisations, in April 1997, Sriyan de Silva says "Industrial relations in countries, sub-regions and regions, have been influenced by a variety of circumstances and actors such as political philosophies, economic imperatives, the role of the State in determining the direction of economic and social development, the influence of unions and the business community, as well as the legacies of colonial governments2." In non-communist countries, it slowly evolved into pluralism, worker's democracy, according to the prevailing ideologies of the land, as totalitarianism could not survive in free societies. With the collapse of Communism in USSR, totalitarianism anyway came to an end and unions lost their ultimate power. Even in erstwhile communist countries, unions now are practising more of pluralism today, because capitalist countries have won the ideological war, and these countries are trying to walk towards democracy and freedom. Unions, in their heydays, were not always easy to deal with and all their demands could not be termed as fair and logical. They were more feared than respected. They forced the government intervention on many occasions. "They had the potential to do serious damage to industry and the economy if the need arose, one reason why the government could not remain aloof from industrial relations, especially later in the period," Aldcroft and Oliver (2000, p.9). One of the greatest achievements in industries in the last four decades is the introduction of Human Resource Development, which, to some extent, obliterated pluralism by overtaking the union role. S.R. de Silva, in his paper 'Elements of a Sound Industrial Relations System' published in International Labour Publications, reiterates, "The present trend in labour relations and human resource management is to place greater emphasis on employee involvement, harmonious employer - employee relations and mechanisms, and on practices which promote them. One of the important consequences of globalization and intense competition has been the pressure on firms to be flexible3." After ruling for almost three decades, pluralism and industrial democracy, with the advancement of globalisation and multi national companies, have become quite irrelevant today and this was predicted by

Electromagnetic Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Electromagnetic - Assignment Example All the objectives would be achieved by carrying out several activities such as tests for magnetic shielding, falling magnets and the design of the motor. The lab activity was also aimed at using PHET simulation software to carry out some electromagnetic tests. Magnetic shielding is the act of reducing the electromagnetic field contained in space by blocking the area with barriers made of either conductive or magnetic material. Magnetic shielding, however, does not prevent a magnetic field, preventing lines of flux from traveling from the North Pole to the South Pole of a magnet. However, the fields can be redirected. Any ferromagnetic metal can be used as a shielding metal. A ferromagnetic metal is a material containing either nickel-iron or cobalt. Most of the steel materials are ferromagnetic metals and work well as redirecting shield. Steel is, however, most used because it is less expensive and widely available. The thickness of the shielding material matters to individual levels. When a shield is so thin, it becomes saturated with magnetic field lines and cannot hold any more lines of flux. Thick shielding is therefore required to carry a maximum number of flux lines. A thick shield does not necessarily mean adding more of steel mate rial. Adding steel thickness does not improve the shielding much. In such cases where saturation is an issue, multiple layers of the shielding material are used. There are some specialized materials especially designed for magnetic shielding. The Specialized magnetic shielding materials are always designed to have a higher relative permeability and a lower saturation point. The right shielding materials depend on the particular shielding problem. For instance for a sensitive electronic, Metals can provide an excellent shielding than steel. Or large applications involving large, powerful neodymium magnets,

Consumer Motivations for Online Shopping

Consumer Motivations for Online Shopping CHAPTER 1 1 INTRODUCTION At the end of the last century, online shopping was already starting to catch peoples attention, and was slowly attracting consumers to use it as a channel, primarily because of its ease in completing purchases (i.e. not needing to step out of the home) and also in providing information as, even then, some sites already provided extensive information (Gay 1999, Gehrt et al 2007). But we are well into the first decade of the 21st century, and since then times have changed and certainly, consumers motivations, as evidenced in this literature review and the results of the research project, have changed. The use of the online channel for shopping varies greatly by country with the UK and the US ranking high up in the list with greatest ratio of online shoppers among Internet users, in addition to also having a large penetration of users for Internet access (Bhatti 2006). In the UK, Internet access among households has increased from 34% in 2000 to 54% in 2004, while Internet access for adults increased from 40% in 2000 to 64% in 2005 (Datamonitor 2006). 1.1 Research aims and objectives The project had two key questions to focus on and this acted as a guide to the research design and methodology. The two key research questions in my project were: What are the key consumer motivations for online shopping and how are these impacting the development of the online channel? This question focused on the key drivers acting as impetus for consumers to pursue online shopping, and how these drivers were impacting the online channel as an alternative channel for making purchases. What are the emerging trends for online shopping, and how will the online shopping channel develop? As online shopping continues to increase, both organisations and consumers are expected to be better-placed with having a good understanding of where online shopping trends seem to be directed at. 1.2 Consumer motivations The project sought to understand the consumer motivations for choosing online shopping as an alternative channel or, for some consumers, their main channel for shopping particular items. This part of the project was based on determining what consumers have stated as their key motivation factors through secondary research. This was supported by primary research by surveying and interviewing consumers on their motivational factors. The objective was to list out the key motivational factors consumers have for online shopping. 1.3 Emerging trends for online shopping In addition to understanding consumer motivation, this project also sought, as an objective, to understand the emerging trends in online shopping, and establish a viewpoint on where the online channel was expected to move to. Similar for consumer motivations, this part of the project was based on a combination of primary and secondary research. 1.4 Rationale for research project There was a strong rationale for pursuing this project as it aimed to provide a greater understanding of the consumer and the motivations behind online shopping. As the importance of the online channel becomes increasingly greater for organisations, there is greater need for determining the consumers key drivers in choosing this as an alternative channel for shopping. The project results impact both consumers and organisations. For consumers, this gave them a venue for stating their preferences and key requirements to continue using the online channel which could lead to improvements on the online shopping experience. For organisations, this project provided an understanding of the current situation and also the emerging trends based on competitive dynamics, in order to be able to provide the consumers their requirements. This project was also important for me as the student as it gave me an opportunity to develop the knowledge and pursue the analysis of a critical management issue which was becoming a greater value add channel for a large number of organisations. The project, I believe, has led to new insights and a confirmation of consumers key motivations to online shopping. I believe this contributes to the growing knowledge on the online shopping experience of consumers 1.5 Overview of the study Chapter 1 is the introduction chapter where the background, research question and rational, objective and the structure of the research are stated. Chapter 2 contains a brief literature review on online shopping and provided basic understanding about consumer motivations and emerging trends for online shopping which is related to the research question. Chapter 3 is brief about the case study on online shopping. Chapter 4 contains research methodology which includes research frame work the design of the research, sampling and questionnaire. Chapter 5 describes the critical review of the findings. Chapter 6 discusses on recommendation and conclusions. CHAPTER 2 2. LITERATURE REVIEW The study attempts to analyze research works relating to consumer motivations for online shopping and related issues are critically evaluated. This research project was pursued with a ‘qualitative research approach as the focus was on consumer motivations, which, while it could have been developed with quantitative metrics, seemed to translate better into a qualitative focus. The objective was more focused on going in greater depth across the key consumer motivations instead of tallying figures in terms of which factors consumers felt were their key motivations. The qualitative aspect of the research project was pursued through surveys and in-depth questionnaires. 2.1 Consumer motivations Childers et al (2001) defines ‘‘consumer motivations for online retail shopping conducted a few years ago, some of the consumer motivations cited were interest in use of a new technology, ease of navigation and use, and convenience of online shopping. While the research mentioned looked at consumer motivations, the research was only a subset of what could be learned from consumer behaviour as the study focused on only a few possible factors of online shopping activity. Linked to the increase of online shopping is the increase in access and usage of the Internet. Rodgers and Sheldon (2002) researched ‘‘the increasing use of the Internet and highlighted shopping as one of the key motivations for increased consumer use. In this work, the authors looked at shopping as a consumer motivation for increased consumer use. (Ko et al 2005, Tamimi et al 2005, Dadzie et al 2005) discussed that ‘‘it should be noted that there has been considerable growth in Internet access and usage, and this has created a significant market in marketing and communications of organisations. Online shopping has been growing and organisations have been focusing more on developing the online channel to capture a greater share of the wallet of the consumer. Online shopping Hult et al (2007) defines that ‘‘online shopping can relate to any offering of service quality, product quality, or e-Business quality where the objective is the customer-based value creation for organisations. Based on this definition, we can see that the number of online shoppers has indeed increased significantly in the UK, with the percentage of UK Internet users shopping online (including ordering tickets of buying goods and services) grew from 36% in 2000 to 61% in 2005 (Datamonitor 2006). For this research project, the broad definition is reasonable as the key focus of the research is in understanding consumer motivations for online shopping in general, with no specific product or service in mind. Undoubtedly, there are a large number of ways in which to cut the issue and there would be differences in the consumer motivations for specific products in specific markets. The works cited in this section provided a good starting point in the consumer motivations to be considered. The research works also provided an indication of the increasing use of the Internet and online shopping as an activity. From the limitations cited in the research works, further research needs to be conducted on a general understanding of consumer motivations which are not limited to a few factors. The rest of this section discusses some motivating factors cited by consumers as driving their online shopping activity. 24-hour access Bramall et al (2004) reported that ‘‘motivation by consumers is the 24-hour access provided or allowed by most online shopping channels. Thus, the online channel is utilised by consumers as it provides them with 24-hour access for information, customer service, and purchase opportunity. This essentially gives the consumer the opportunity to browse products and purchase at the consumers own leisure. While the research of the authors states this factor as a motivation, the focus of the research work was actually on potential trust issues in online shopping. This specific motivating factor was not analysed in comparison to other motivating factors for consumers. + Shopping convenience One oft-mentioned reason and an early consumer motivating factor, for shopping online is the convenience of doing so as consumers wont need to go to the retail stores and experience the ‘hassle of buying products in the stores (NBC News 2007). According to one study Furnham (2007) ‘‘not only highlight the convenience of shopping online but also states that shopping only also helps decision-making as a large part of the information requirements a consumer may need to make the decision are found online. Clearly, shopping convenience is expected to rank high among the consumers in terms of their motivations for pursuing online shopping. Gehrt et al (2007) reported that ‘‘Shopping convenience is a large factor for the US and UK consumers but this is not limited to the US or the UK markets only as even in Japan, online shopping has seen increasing growth rates, with shopping convenience as the greatest factor motivating consumers to do online shopping. The shopping convenience factor has been recognised across a number of research works, but these only tend to highlight that consumers have different meanings attached to the terminology, and may actually be referring to different sub-factors under the general term of convenience. In understanding this factor further, specific meanings were attached to and discussed in the surveys and interviews for the research. Greater bargains Craver (2006) reported that ‘‘not only consumers are expected to continue increasing their online purchases but only if they receive greater bargains from sellers in their online sites versus their retail stores. Thus, consumers are already building the expectations that prices online will be less that prices in retail stores. Hajewski (2006) pointed out that ‘‘If only to hammer the point of increasing consumer expectations, two factors mentioned by consumers in their increased interest in doing online shopping were free shipping of their products purchased and also everyday low pricing particularly relative to the retail stores of the sellers. The key limitation in the citations for ‘greater bargains is that these are from press articles and the approaches were not based on proper research conducted to determine the consumer motivations for online shopping. Nevertheless, this should still be accepted as a consumer motivation as this has been mentioned to be a factor based on the articles cited. Overall online shopping site experience Elliott Speck (2005) discussed that ‘‘touches on the overall online shopping site experience which in a way, relates to the overall customer experience in online shopping. This factor is quite specific to online shopping sites which consumers may visit but this nevertheless provides a motivation for some specific consumers and it relates to the overall online shopping site experience and having a positive satisfaction to the experience. Specifically, the authors argued that the following factors impacted on the consumer motivation to complete their online shopping transactions: ease of use of online shopping site, product information available, trust in the brand and the online shopping site, customer support, and entertainment experienced while in the site. The focus of the research conducted by the authors was not on online shopping specifically but rather on the attitude towards retail web sites but using the online shopping experience as an example, with an analysis of the resulting impact on the consumers. Similar to some of the other published research cited in this section, the key limitation is the set of respondents considered for the research which, in this case, consisted of undergraduate marketing students. The results are interesting and provide a good preview of what the results could be if the research is expanded to capture a greater sample of the population. 2.2 Emerging trends for online shopping In reviewing the related literature touching on online shopping and also consumer motivations, a number of emerging trends were clearly seen. These include the following: * Increased efforts in improving online security * Potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses * Usability of an online site as an increasing differentiator * Management of Internet product returns * Increasingly demanding consumers * Increasing opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationships * Increasingly older market * Greater share of ad market Each of these trends is discussed in greater detail in this section. Increased efforts in improving online security (Bramall et al 2004, Arnold et al 2007, OConnell 2005, Cullen 2005) explained that ‘‘online shopping has shown strong growth and yet the belief is that online shopping growth rates could actually be much higher if not for security-related concerns by some consumers. Biswas et al (2006) described ‘‘there are two trends to be noted in relation to the security concerns of consumers. The first, as mentioned, is that there are greater efforts placed by organisations in improving online security as breaches to their security could have considerable consequences. The second trend is that a complementary approach to improving reputation for managing online security risks is paramount. In support of this, where there are great concerns for risk, it has been established that utilising expert endorsers, as opposed to celebrity endorsers or even non-celebrity non-expert endorsers, can actually help in bringing consumers over their risk concerns. Potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses Another trend is that organisations are increasingly seeing potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses. For example, in recent months, Kohls, a US department store chain, has offered products online which were not normally found in their department stores and these included higher-priced items such as leather chairs, high-end home entertainment centres, and flat screen televisions (Hajewski 2007). This trend is not without its implications for organisation. In the Kohls example, one problem with the expanded product range as done by Kohls was that Kohls did not offer everything they had online in their retail stores. This is a concern as some consumers utilise the online site for their ‘window shopping before moving to the retail stores to try on and purchase the items (Dodes 2006). The article states that more than 80% of online shoppers research products online first before sometimes going to the stores to see the products firsthand. Given that not all products are available in the stores, it would be prudent for online sites to be clear about which products are available in the stores and which products are not. In terms of ancillary businesses, the increase in online usage and online shopping has even spawned related business such as businesses which monitor traffic into organisations websites with the objective of increasing an organisations online sales (Newman 2007). Another ancillary business opportunity is from online shopping sites is as a social shopping space, such as Jellyfish.com which was recently acquired by Microsoft as it saw the growing opportunity in the business (Gallagher 2007). However, these new business are still untested as these are fairly new and would need some time before potentially growing into profitable businesses. As online shopping continues to grow, organisations will continue to seek out other opportunities that could help build the rationale for investments in establishing a highly competitive online shopping site. Usability of online site is an increasing differentiator Massey et al (2007) reported that ‘‘while the extent of technological readiness of the consumer plays a part in determining the level of comfort in navigating through an online shopping site, the general usability of an online shopping site is an increasing differentiator and distinguishes between the different sites that consumers will utilize in online shopping. The goal with these sites is to have it easily navigated through by consumers such that any potential barriers to keep consumers from purchasing products and services are effectively taken out of the equation. An example of an initiative moving into the direction of overall ease of usability is the recent transaction involving Abazias.com and Google wherein Abzias.com partnered with Google for their shopping checkout process which is considered fast and very convenient (M2 Presswire 2007). The challenge for organisations is to continue making their online shopping sites easier to use. And to support the point, some online shopping sites now provide potential live help from customer service if particular requirements are needed in order to limit the number of lost purchases resulting from consumers abandoning their purchases (Prince 2005). Overall, the design of the website and the ease of use have a large impact on the online shopping sites performance (Auger 2005). Management of Internet product returns Mollenkopf et al (2007) explained that emerging trend is the establishment of clear guidelines in the management of Internet product returns, which then addresses a key concern or questions by some consumers. Internet product returns has been one of the key factors limiting part of the online shopping growth as the uncertainty surrounding how returns of defective or unwanted products impacted on the overall cost and inconvenience for the consumer. Organisations which are able to state clearly their policies on Internet product returns, and which provide a seamless process for allowing consumers to make returns for products bought online are at an advantage versus other organisations which have a perception of ‘being difficult to coordinate with in processing Internet product returns. Increasingly demanding consumers As the development of the online shopping channel continues, we are now seeing increasingly demanding consumers. This is shown in the UK supermarket sector. In this sector, online shopping is still considered a poor offering by the UK supermarkets as none of the top five supermarket chains passed a service test conducted by a consumer affairs staff of a newspaper (Prunn 2006). Their failures were from their product offering to the product substitutes provided. The key good news for the UK supermarkets though was that the websites were generally easy to use for online shopping. Also, the delivery drivers were helpful and friendly. In contrast, in the US, online shopping offering for the supermarkets is a competitive offering with various supermarkets increasingly providing greater online shopping offerings for their consumers including chef-prepared, fresh-food delivery service (Food Institute Report 2006). Thus, the US supermarkets are able to provide the US consumers with their ‘demands from US supermarkets. UK supermarkets will need to focus on improving their offering in order to capture the consumer wallet for shopping deliveries. Increasing opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationships (Kennedy 2006) pointed out that the online shopping channel provides organisations with an additional channel to develop consumer relationships. Organisations which are able to effectively capture value from their online shopping offering are the organisations which are able to â€Å"collect and analyze data on consumer patterns, interpret customer behaviour, respond with timely and effective customised communications, and deliver product and service value to consumers†. The game is not new to most organisations. The only difference is that there is a new channel to consider for the consumer relationships. In order to be competitive, organisations should be able to learn from their interactions with the consumers, and develop the channel into one that consumers will find value from. With the growth of the online shopping channel, more organisations will invest in ensuring that consumer information is managed properly to be leveraged by the organisation in capturing value from the interactions. Increasingly older market Iyer Eastman (2006) has noted that the â€Å"older internet users market comprises the fastest-growing demographic group in the Internet market† and are, aside from large and growing, generally financially secure. This potential trend has large implications on various organisations that can benefit from this research work. Thus, a greater understanding of the key trends is important in order to allow the organisations to plan and invest properly in their online shopping channels. Greater share of ad market Finally, another trend worth noting is the increasing share of the ad market by the online channel. With the growth of the online shopping consumer market, the ad share of this channel is expected to grow as well from about 5-8% to up to one-fifth of total ad budgets over the next three years (Ong 2005). The greater share of the ad market by the online channel has implications for organisations across two key points. First is that there needs to be a decision on the amount of the ad budget that will be allotted to the online channel. After deciding on the first point, the second key point is that it is imperative for organisations to understand the business model of the online channel, and that the organisations have a plan in ensuring their investments will eventually generate good returns. CHAPTER 3 3. CASE STUDY 3.1 History of online shopping Shopping online is the process for the customer to buy products or services via the Internet. In other words, consumers can buy it from the comfort of a holiday home of their own products from a store online. The concepts of this show before the first World Wide Web that are used with real-time transactions are processed from the domestic television! The technology used is called Videotext and shows the first time in 1979 by M. Aldrick, designed and installed the system in the UK. T. 1990 by Berners-Lee created the first WWW server and browser, and in 1995 by expanding the Amazon online shopping experience. History of Online Shopping is amazing. Gone are the days of waiting in traffic and work our way through the store is too full. All we need is a computer, bank account, credit or debit card and freedom voila! From books, to cosmetics, clothes and accessories to name a few, online shopping is the best in the century to 21 Simply find a site that offers things you want, price and delivery terms and in a matter of a few days of your purchase is at your door. Benefits and the ease of clear predictable as we offer a wider selection, competitive prices and greater access to information in regards to our purchase. Online stores are usually available 24 hours a day, and allow consumers to shop in their spare time and without travelling outside normal working hours. Another to consider is the first time the Internet was not well prepared that they will change the way we shop. On the web is created as a tool for communication, which in time to let the ease of virtual shopping. History of online shopping by itself represents a change by the people and now has become a service used by the ordinary business and shopping in the world. (Online blog, http://roomen-online.blogspot.com/2009/08/history-of-online-shopping.html) 3.2 Growth of online shopping The ability to shop online has transformed the way many consumers go about purchasing a product or service, giving the power to the individual consumer to access information, allowing easy and convenient research and comparison of various factors prior to making a purchase. The growth rate of online commerce is unparalleled in any other industry, growing twenty times faster than the overall UK retail market in 2005. Furthermore, the number of online shoppers grew by 25.5% to 14.6 million; with the number over the age of 55 doubling to 2.7 million. Forrester Research predict that UK shoppers will drive UK e-commerce from â‚ ¬43bn in 2006 to â‚ ¬76bn in 2011, accounting for 29% of total European internet retail. As such, we see the market study as a good opportunity to ‘take stock of online shopping in the UK, looking at what it has done for UK plc as a whole since its growth through the internet boom of the late nineties to the stable yet competitive market we see today. I t is worth noting many of the businesses that lived through the dot-com crash were internet retail sites, a clear indication of the valuable role they play for consumers. ( OFT Market Study on Online Shopping, http://207.45.116.138/ndbs/positiondoc.nsf/1f08ec61711f29768025672a0055f7a8/6174E87FE56AFC3F8025735300568DBA/$file/oftonlineshopping250706.pdf ) 3.3 Current trend As far as online shopping in UK is concerned, there is clear trend that those who resort to this new system of shopping will increase by 30 to 40 per cent in a period of 4 years. Remember, there was a delay of 2 to 6 years for people to shift to online shopping after getting acquainted to the internet. But the online system is gaining momentum in an unprecedented market reaction. In the early years only younger generation was using the online shopping services, but then came a remarkable change in the pattern of users. More and more people from older generation are getting attracted to the online shopping system. According to reliable projections, by 2050 the retail marketing scene will undergo a thorough change in its form and magnitude, and the shopping in UK will evolve beyond recognition with high street dominating the field. Everyone will be online, every hour every day! It will become an automatic process and convert the high street to something like a gallery style showroom! If the prediction becomes a reality, the Britons will be spending nearly 63 billion pounds for the online shopping. 860 million parcels will be shipped to the United Kingdom to serve 26 million internet shoppers. Each shopper will spend  £ 2400 each on an average. The number of people using online shopping will exceed the predictions and projections, if the present trend is an indication to that. At present, 10 per cent of the total retail selling is through internet. It will go up to 20 percent in 3 years. There will be a remarkable change in the composition of customers, patronizing online shopping. Men and women of all ages and professions will adopt the new system for the advantages inherent in the online shopping. The older generation, will increasingly use the online shopping, to avoid the ordeals of travelling, searching and bargaining involved in the conventional shopping. It is easier, faster, safer and valuable, according to those who have changed over to the system. No doubt the online shopping will gain popularity and momentum in the coming years. Globalization of trade has given a new impetus to this new market initiative. The political borders are disappearing as far as trade and commerce are concerned. The online trading and international postal services are giving new thrust to economy. Cross border shopping is flourishing. The internet has helped to widen the area of information much to the benefits of the customers. More accurate information is available now, about the companies, their products and services. The consumers are able to browse online catalogues and acquire vital information about a variety of goods displayed by several companies in their websites. Regarding prices there is a distinctively clear advantage for the consumer. The absence of middle men in the online shopping system will permit the dealers to trim their profit margins in favour of the customer. There are many price comparison service providers who serve the consumer by providing product information and price advantages. Retailers also publish their price ranges in such websites. The shopping web portals are more than the online version of yellow pages. The price comparison services search and retrieve data directly from retailers and feed them to the consumers through the internet. A comprehensive list of retailers and detailed list of prices are available with regular updating. (Future of ONLINE SHOPPING in UK, http://www.edealsuk.com/articles/online-shopping-trend-uk.html) CHAPTER 4 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY . This research project was conducted with an explanatory research approach as the focus was in discovering ideas and insights into consumer motivations and emerging trends on online shopping (Mariampolski 2001). The research methodology also followed the framework of analysis defined in the previous section which resulted from the literature review. As the research work was largely qualitative, the exploratory approach and the analysis and results from the primary research provides a good understanding of the consumer motivations for online shopping, and also provides a framework for further analysis if needed by other researchers focusing on greater depth in some areas or expansion of issues not covered in this research project. The focus of the research project is on consumer motivations on online shopping and will not touch on specific online sites unless these are discussed in the context of increasing online shopping activities and consumer motivations. 4.1 Primary research The key primary research activities for this project included surveys and in-depth interviews to understand the key consumer motivations for online shopping. 4.1.1 Surveys The surveys gave a preview of the various factors which were impacting on online shopping. An open-ended survey was conducted to give consumers the opportunity to give factors which they truly feel were their key motivating considerations. The survey was divided into two main sections: * Open-ended and unprompted This section was designed to allow the respondents to give answers freely without any prompts. This was to ensure that the consumers thoughts were captured properly, and that their ideas and key motivations were the ones that were included in their responses. * Prompted with specific factors After the unprompted section, the survey had a section which had some of the preliminary findings from the literature review. This was designed to test the literature review findings, and also provide the respondents an opportunity to highlight some factors which may be important but were not mentioned by the respondent during the first part of the survey. 4.1.2 In-depth Interviews The in-depth interviews were Consumer Motivations for Online Shopping Consumer Motivations for Online Shopping CHAPTER 1 1 INTRODUCTION At the end of the last century, online shopping was already starting to catch peoples attention, and was slowly attracting consumers to use it as a channel, primarily because of its ease in completing purchases (i.e. not needing to step out of the home) and also in providing information as, even then, some sites already provided extensive information (Gay 1999, Gehrt et al 2007). But we are well into the first decade of the 21st century, and since then times have changed and certainly, consumers motivations, as evidenced in this literature review and the results of the research project, have changed. The use of the online channel for shopping varies greatly by country with the UK and the US ranking high up in the list with greatest ratio of online shoppers among Internet users, in addition to also having a large penetration of users for Internet access (Bhatti 2006). In the UK, Internet access among households has increased from 34% in 2000 to 54% in 2004, while Internet access for adults increased from 40% in 2000 to 64% in 2005 (Datamonitor 2006). 1.1 Research aims and objectives The project had two key questions to focus on and this acted as a guide to the research design and methodology. The two key research questions in my project were: What are the key consumer motivations for online shopping and how are these impacting the development of the online channel? This question focused on the key drivers acting as impetus for consumers to pursue online shopping, and how these drivers were impacting the online channel as an alternative channel for making purchases. What are the emerging trends for online shopping, and how will the online shopping channel develop? As online shopping continues to increase, both organisations and consumers are expected to be better-placed with having a good understanding of where online shopping trends seem to be directed at. 1.2 Consumer motivations The project sought to understand the consumer motivations for choosing online shopping as an alternative channel or, for some consumers, their main channel for shopping particular items. This part of the project was based on determining what consumers have stated as their key motivation factors through secondary research. This was supported by primary research by surveying and interviewing consumers on their motivational factors. The objective was to list out the key motivational factors consumers have for online shopping. 1.3 Emerging trends for online shopping In addition to understanding consumer motivation, this project also sought, as an objective, to understand the emerging trends in online shopping, and establish a viewpoint on where the online channel was expected to move to. Similar for consumer motivations, this part of the project was based on a combination of primary and secondary research. 1.4 Rationale for research project There was a strong rationale for pursuing this project as it aimed to provide a greater understanding of the consumer and the motivations behind online shopping. As the importance of the online channel becomes increasingly greater for organisations, there is greater need for determining the consumers key drivers in choosing this as an alternative channel for shopping. The project results impact both consumers and organisations. For consumers, this gave them a venue for stating their preferences and key requirements to continue using the online channel which could lead to improvements on the online shopping experience. For organisations, this project provided an understanding of the current situation and also the emerging trends based on competitive dynamics, in order to be able to provide the consumers their requirements. This project was also important for me as the student as it gave me an opportunity to develop the knowledge and pursue the analysis of a critical management issue which was becoming a greater value add channel for a large number of organisations. The project, I believe, has led to new insights and a confirmation of consumers key motivations to online shopping. I believe this contributes to the growing knowledge on the online shopping experience of consumers 1.5 Overview of the study Chapter 1 is the introduction chapter where the background, research question and rational, objective and the structure of the research are stated. Chapter 2 contains a brief literature review on online shopping and provided basic understanding about consumer motivations and emerging trends for online shopping which is related to the research question. Chapter 3 is brief about the case study on online shopping. Chapter 4 contains research methodology which includes research frame work the design of the research, sampling and questionnaire. Chapter 5 describes the critical review of the findings. Chapter 6 discusses on recommendation and conclusions. CHAPTER 2 2. LITERATURE REVIEW The study attempts to analyze research works relating to consumer motivations for online shopping and related issues are critically evaluated. This research project was pursued with a ‘qualitative research approach as the focus was on consumer motivations, which, while it could have been developed with quantitative metrics, seemed to translate better into a qualitative focus. The objective was more focused on going in greater depth across the key consumer motivations instead of tallying figures in terms of which factors consumers felt were their key motivations. The qualitative aspect of the research project was pursued through surveys and in-depth questionnaires. 2.1 Consumer motivations Childers et al (2001) defines ‘‘consumer motivations for online retail shopping conducted a few years ago, some of the consumer motivations cited were interest in use of a new technology, ease of navigation and use, and convenience of online shopping. While the research mentioned looked at consumer motivations, the research was only a subset of what could be learned from consumer behaviour as the study focused on only a few possible factors of online shopping activity. Linked to the increase of online shopping is the increase in access and usage of the Internet. Rodgers and Sheldon (2002) researched ‘‘the increasing use of the Internet and highlighted shopping as one of the key motivations for increased consumer use. In this work, the authors looked at shopping as a consumer motivation for increased consumer use. (Ko et al 2005, Tamimi et al 2005, Dadzie et al 2005) discussed that ‘‘it should be noted that there has been considerable growth in Internet access and usage, and this has created a significant market in marketing and communications of organisations. Online shopping has been growing and organisations have been focusing more on developing the online channel to capture a greater share of the wallet of the consumer. Online shopping Hult et al (2007) defines that ‘‘online shopping can relate to any offering of service quality, product quality, or e-Business quality where the objective is the customer-based value creation for organisations. Based on this definition, we can see that the number of online shoppers has indeed increased significantly in the UK, with the percentage of UK Internet users shopping online (including ordering tickets of buying goods and services) grew from 36% in 2000 to 61% in 2005 (Datamonitor 2006). For this research project, the broad definition is reasonable as the key focus of the research is in understanding consumer motivations for online shopping in general, with no specific product or service in mind. Undoubtedly, there are a large number of ways in which to cut the issue and there would be differences in the consumer motivations for specific products in specific markets. The works cited in this section provided a good starting point in the consumer motivations to be considered. The research works also provided an indication of the increasing use of the Internet and online shopping as an activity. From the limitations cited in the research works, further research needs to be conducted on a general understanding of consumer motivations which are not limited to a few factors. The rest of this section discusses some motivating factors cited by consumers as driving their online shopping activity. 24-hour access Bramall et al (2004) reported that ‘‘motivation by consumers is the 24-hour access provided or allowed by most online shopping channels. Thus, the online channel is utilised by consumers as it provides them with 24-hour access for information, customer service, and purchase opportunity. This essentially gives the consumer the opportunity to browse products and purchase at the consumers own leisure. While the research of the authors states this factor as a motivation, the focus of the research work was actually on potential trust issues in online shopping. This specific motivating factor was not analysed in comparison to other motivating factors for consumers. + Shopping convenience One oft-mentioned reason and an early consumer motivating factor, for shopping online is the convenience of doing so as consumers wont need to go to the retail stores and experience the ‘hassle of buying products in the stores (NBC News 2007). According to one study Furnham (2007) ‘‘not only highlight the convenience of shopping online but also states that shopping only also helps decision-making as a large part of the information requirements a consumer may need to make the decision are found online. Clearly, shopping convenience is expected to rank high among the consumers in terms of their motivations for pursuing online shopping. Gehrt et al (2007) reported that ‘‘Shopping convenience is a large factor for the US and UK consumers but this is not limited to the US or the UK markets only as even in Japan, online shopping has seen increasing growth rates, with shopping convenience as the greatest factor motivating consumers to do online shopping. The shopping convenience factor has been recognised across a number of research works, but these only tend to highlight that consumers have different meanings attached to the terminology, and may actually be referring to different sub-factors under the general term of convenience. In understanding this factor further, specific meanings were attached to and discussed in the surveys and interviews for the research. Greater bargains Craver (2006) reported that ‘‘not only consumers are expected to continue increasing their online purchases but only if they receive greater bargains from sellers in their online sites versus their retail stores. Thus, consumers are already building the expectations that prices online will be less that prices in retail stores. Hajewski (2006) pointed out that ‘‘If only to hammer the point of increasing consumer expectations, two factors mentioned by consumers in their increased interest in doing online shopping were free shipping of their products purchased and also everyday low pricing particularly relative to the retail stores of the sellers. The key limitation in the citations for ‘greater bargains is that these are from press articles and the approaches were not based on proper research conducted to determine the consumer motivations for online shopping. Nevertheless, this should still be accepted as a consumer motivation as this has been mentioned to be a factor based on the articles cited. Overall online shopping site experience Elliott Speck (2005) discussed that ‘‘touches on the overall online shopping site experience which in a way, relates to the overall customer experience in online shopping. This factor is quite specific to online shopping sites which consumers may visit but this nevertheless provides a motivation for some specific consumers and it relates to the overall online shopping site experience and having a positive satisfaction to the experience. Specifically, the authors argued that the following factors impacted on the consumer motivation to complete their online shopping transactions: ease of use of online shopping site, product information available, trust in the brand and the online shopping site, customer support, and entertainment experienced while in the site. The focus of the research conducted by the authors was not on online shopping specifically but rather on the attitude towards retail web sites but using the online shopping experience as an example, with an analysis of the resulting impact on the consumers. Similar to some of the other published research cited in this section, the key limitation is the set of respondents considered for the research which, in this case, consisted of undergraduate marketing students. The results are interesting and provide a good preview of what the results could be if the research is expanded to capture a greater sample of the population. 2.2 Emerging trends for online shopping In reviewing the related literature touching on online shopping and also consumer motivations, a number of emerging trends were clearly seen. These include the following: * Increased efforts in improving online security * Potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses * Usability of an online site as an increasing differentiator * Management of Internet product returns * Increasingly demanding consumers * Increasing opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationships * Increasingly older market * Greater share of ad market Each of these trends is discussed in greater detail in this section. Increased efforts in improving online security (Bramall et al 2004, Arnold et al 2007, OConnell 2005, Cullen 2005) explained that ‘‘online shopping has shown strong growth and yet the belief is that online shopping growth rates could actually be much higher if not for security-related concerns by some consumers. Biswas et al (2006) described ‘‘there are two trends to be noted in relation to the security concerns of consumers. The first, as mentioned, is that there are greater efforts placed by organisations in improving online security as breaches to their security could have considerable consequences. The second trend is that a complementary approach to improving reputation for managing online security risks is paramount. In support of this, where there are great concerns for risk, it has been established that utilising expert endorsers, as opposed to celebrity endorsers or even non-celebrity non-expert endorsers, can actually help in bringing consumers over their risk concerns. Potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses Another trend is that organisations are increasingly seeing potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses. For example, in recent months, Kohls, a US department store chain, has offered products online which were not normally found in their department stores and these included higher-priced items such as leather chairs, high-end home entertainment centres, and flat screen televisions (Hajewski 2007). This trend is not without its implications for organisation. In the Kohls example, one problem with the expanded product range as done by Kohls was that Kohls did not offer everything they had online in their retail stores. This is a concern as some consumers utilise the online site for their ‘window shopping before moving to the retail stores to try on and purchase the items (Dodes 2006). The article states that more than 80% of online shoppers research products online first before sometimes going to the stores to see the products firsthand. Given that not all products are available in the stores, it would be prudent for online sites to be clear about which products are available in the stores and which products are not. In terms of ancillary businesses, the increase in online usage and online shopping has even spawned related business such as businesses which monitor traffic into organisations websites with the objective of increasing an organisations online sales (Newman 2007). Another ancillary business opportunity is from online shopping sites is as a social shopping space, such as Jellyfish.com which was recently acquired by Microsoft as it saw the growing opportunity in the business (Gallagher 2007). However, these new business are still untested as these are fairly new and would need some time before potentially growing into profitable businesses. As online shopping continues to grow, organisations will continue to seek out other opportunities that could help build the rationale for investments in establishing a highly competitive online shopping site. Usability of online site is an increasing differentiator Massey et al (2007) reported that ‘‘while the extent of technological readiness of the consumer plays a part in determining the level of comfort in navigating through an online shopping site, the general usability of an online shopping site is an increasing differentiator and distinguishes between the different sites that consumers will utilize in online shopping. The goal with these sites is to have it easily navigated through by consumers such that any potential barriers to keep consumers from purchasing products and services are effectively taken out of the equation. An example of an initiative moving into the direction of overall ease of usability is the recent transaction involving Abazias.com and Google wherein Abzias.com partnered with Google for their shopping checkout process which is considered fast and very convenient (M2 Presswire 2007). The challenge for organisations is to continue making their online shopping sites easier to use. And to support the point, some online shopping sites now provide potential live help from customer service if particular requirements are needed in order to limit the number of lost purchases resulting from consumers abandoning their purchases (Prince 2005). Overall, the design of the website and the ease of use have a large impact on the online shopping sites performance (Auger 2005). Management of Internet product returns Mollenkopf et al (2007) explained that emerging trend is the establishment of clear guidelines in the management of Internet product returns, which then addresses a key concern or questions by some consumers. Internet product returns has been one of the key factors limiting part of the online shopping growth as the uncertainty surrounding how returns of defective or unwanted products impacted on the overall cost and inconvenience for the consumer. Organisations which are able to state clearly their policies on Internet product returns, and which provide a seamless process for allowing consumers to make returns for products bought online are at an advantage versus other organisations which have a perception of ‘being difficult to coordinate with in processing Internet product returns. Increasingly demanding consumers As the development of the online shopping channel continues, we are now seeing increasingly demanding consumers. This is shown in the UK supermarket sector. In this sector, online shopping is still considered a poor offering by the UK supermarkets as none of the top five supermarket chains passed a service test conducted by a consumer affairs staff of a newspaper (Prunn 2006). Their failures were from their product offering to the product substitutes provided. The key good news for the UK supermarkets though was that the websites were generally easy to use for online shopping. Also, the delivery drivers were helpful and friendly. In contrast, in the US, online shopping offering for the supermarkets is a competitive offering with various supermarkets increasingly providing greater online shopping offerings for their consumers including chef-prepared, fresh-food delivery service (Food Institute Report 2006). Thus, the US supermarkets are able to provide the US consumers with their ‘demands from US supermarkets. UK supermarkets will need to focus on improving their offering in order to capture the consumer wallet for shopping deliveries. Increasing opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationships (Kennedy 2006) pointed out that the online shopping channel provides organisations with an additional channel to develop consumer relationships. Organisations which are able to effectively capture value from their online shopping offering are the organisations which are able to â€Å"collect and analyze data on consumer patterns, interpret customer behaviour, respond with timely and effective customised communications, and deliver product and service value to consumers†. The game is not new to most organisations. The only difference is that there is a new channel to consider for the consumer relationships. In order to be competitive, organisations should be able to learn from their interactions with the consumers, and develop the channel into one that consumers will find value from. With the growth of the online shopping channel, more organisations will invest in ensuring that consumer information is managed properly to be leveraged by the organisation in capturing value from the interactions. Increasingly older market Iyer Eastman (2006) has noted that the â€Å"older internet users market comprises the fastest-growing demographic group in the Internet market† and are, aside from large and growing, generally financially secure. This potential trend has large implications on various organisations that can benefit from this research work. Thus, a greater understanding of the key trends is important in order to allow the organisations to plan and invest properly in their online shopping channels. Greater share of ad market Finally, another trend worth noting is the increasing share of the ad market by the online channel. With the growth of the online shopping consumer market, the ad share of this channel is expected to grow as well from about 5-8% to up to one-fifth of total ad budgets over the next three years (Ong 2005). The greater share of the ad market by the online channel has implications for organisations across two key points. First is that there needs to be a decision on the amount of the ad budget that will be allotted to the online channel. After deciding on the first point, the second key point is that it is imperative for organisations to understand the business model of the online channel, and that the organisations have a plan in ensuring their investments will eventually generate good returns. CHAPTER 3 3. CASE STUDY 3.1 History of online shopping Shopping online is the process for the customer to buy products or services via the Internet. In other words, consumers can buy it from the comfort of a holiday home of their own products from a store online. The concepts of this show before the first World Wide Web that are used with real-time transactions are processed from the domestic television! The technology used is called Videotext and shows the first time in 1979 by M. Aldrick, designed and installed the system in the UK. T. 1990 by Berners-Lee created the first WWW server and browser, and in 1995 by expanding the Amazon online shopping experience. History of Online Shopping is amazing. Gone are the days of waiting in traffic and work our way through the store is too full. All we need is a computer, bank account, credit or debit card and freedom voila! From books, to cosmetics, clothes and accessories to name a few, online shopping is the best in the century to 21 Simply find a site that offers things you want, price and delivery terms and in a matter of a few days of your purchase is at your door. Benefits and the ease of clear predictable as we offer a wider selection, competitive prices and greater access to information in regards to our purchase. Online stores are usually available 24 hours a day, and allow consumers to shop in their spare time and without travelling outside normal working hours. Another to consider is the first time the Internet was not well prepared that they will change the way we shop. On the web is created as a tool for communication, which in time to let the ease of virtual shopping. History of online shopping by itself represents a change by the people and now has become a service used by the ordinary business and shopping in the world. (Online blog, http://roomen-online.blogspot.com/2009/08/history-of-online-shopping.html) 3.2 Growth of online shopping The ability to shop online has transformed the way many consumers go about purchasing a product or service, giving the power to the individual consumer to access information, allowing easy and convenient research and comparison of various factors prior to making a purchase. The growth rate of online commerce is unparalleled in any other industry, growing twenty times faster than the overall UK retail market in 2005. Furthermore, the number of online shoppers grew by 25.5% to 14.6 million; with the number over the age of 55 doubling to 2.7 million. Forrester Research predict that UK shoppers will drive UK e-commerce from â‚ ¬43bn in 2006 to â‚ ¬76bn in 2011, accounting for 29% of total European internet retail. As such, we see the market study as a good opportunity to ‘take stock of online shopping in the UK, looking at what it has done for UK plc as a whole since its growth through the internet boom of the late nineties to the stable yet competitive market we see today. I t is worth noting many of the businesses that lived through the dot-com crash were internet retail sites, a clear indication of the valuable role they play for consumers. ( OFT Market Study on Online Shopping, http://207.45.116.138/ndbs/positiondoc.nsf/1f08ec61711f29768025672a0055f7a8/6174E87FE56AFC3F8025735300568DBA/$file/oftonlineshopping250706.pdf ) 3.3 Current trend As far as online shopping in UK is concerned, there is clear trend that those who resort to this new system of shopping will increase by 30 to 40 per cent in a period of 4 years. Remember, there was a delay of 2 to 6 years for people to shift to online shopping after getting acquainted to the internet. But the online system is gaining momentum in an unprecedented market reaction. In the early years only younger generation was using the online shopping services, but then came a remarkable change in the pattern of users. More and more people from older generation are getting attracted to the online shopping system. According to reliable projections, by 2050 the retail marketing scene will undergo a thorough change in its form and magnitude, and the shopping in UK will evolve beyond recognition with high street dominating the field. Everyone will be online, every hour every day! It will become an automatic process and convert the high street to something like a gallery style showroom! If the prediction becomes a reality, the Britons will be spending nearly 63 billion pounds for the online shopping. 860 million parcels will be shipped to the United Kingdom to serve 26 million internet shoppers. Each shopper will spend  £ 2400 each on an average. The number of people using online shopping will exceed the predictions and projections, if the present trend is an indication to that. At present, 10 per cent of the total retail selling is through internet. It will go up to 20 percent in 3 years. There will be a remarkable change in the composition of customers, patronizing online shopping. Men and women of all ages and professions will adopt the new system for the advantages inherent in the online shopping. The older generation, will increasingly use the online shopping, to avoid the ordeals of travelling, searching and bargaining involved in the conventional shopping. It is easier, faster, safer and valuable, according to those who have changed over to the system. No doubt the online shopping will gain popularity and momentum in the coming years. Globalization of trade has given a new impetus to this new market initiative. The political borders are disappearing as far as trade and commerce are concerned. The online trading and international postal services are giving new thrust to economy. Cross border shopping is flourishing. The internet has helped to widen the area of information much to the benefits of the customers. More accurate information is available now, about the companies, their products and services. The consumers are able to browse online catalogues and acquire vital information about a variety of goods displayed by several companies in their websites. Regarding prices there is a distinctively clear advantage for the consumer. The absence of middle men in the online shopping system will permit the dealers to trim their profit margins in favour of the customer. There are many price comparison service providers who serve the consumer by providing product information and price advantages. Retailers also publish their price ranges in such websites. The shopping web portals are more than the online version of yellow pages. The price comparison services search and retrieve data directly from retailers and feed them to the consumers through the internet. A comprehensive list of retailers and detailed list of prices are available with regular updating. (Future of ONLINE SHOPPING in UK, http://www.edealsuk.com/articles/online-shopping-trend-uk.html) CHAPTER 4 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY . This research project was conducted with an explanatory research approach as the focus was in discovering ideas and insights into consumer motivations and emerging trends on online shopping (Mariampolski 2001). The research methodology also followed the framework of analysis defined in the previous section which resulted from the literature review. As the research work was largely qualitative, the exploratory approach and the analysis and results from the primary research provides a good understanding of the consumer motivations for online shopping, and also provides a framework for further analysis if needed by other researchers focusing on greater depth in some areas or expansion of issues not covered in this research project. The focus of the research project is on consumer motivations on online shopping and will not touch on specific online sites unless these are discussed in the context of increasing online shopping activities and consumer motivations. 4.1 Primary research The key primary research activities for this project included surveys and in-depth interviews to understand the key consumer motivations for online shopping. 4.1.1 Surveys The surveys gave a preview of the various factors which were impacting on online shopping. An open-ended survey was conducted to give consumers the opportunity to give factors which they truly feel were their key motivating considerations. The survey was divided into two main sections: * Open-ended and unprompted This section was designed to allow the respondents to give answers freely without any prompts. This was to ensure that the consumers thoughts were captured properly, and that their ideas and key motivations were the ones that were included in their responses. * Prompted with specific factors After the unprompted section, the survey had a section which had some of the preliminary findings from the literature review. This was designed to test the literature review findings, and also provide the respondents an opportunity to highlight some factors which may be important but were not mentioned by the respondent during the first part of the survey. 4.1.2 In-depth Interviews The in-depth interviews were