Buddhism The Foundation, Development and Beliefs Free Essays

In spite of the fact that different divisions of Buddhism have adjusted their practices to oblige the necessities of a more extensive scope of individuals, Theravada has remained for all intents and purposes equivalent to it was at its establishing. Theravada Buddhism is the first and most well known type of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Theravada stays nearest to the first lessons of the author of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama. We will compose a custom exposition test on Buddhism: The Foundation, Development and Beliefs or then again any comparative point just for you Request Now Siddhartha Gautama is the first author of all types of Buddhism. He was conceived in present day Nepal around 563 B. C. E. He was a ruler of the Shakyas family, and likely beneficiary to his father’s seat. He was named â€Å"Siddhartha† which implies â€Å"he who has achieved his objectives. † Being the sovereign of the warrior standing, he prepared in expressions of the human experience of war and grew up to be a solid and attractive youngster. At the point when he was at sixteen years old, he battled and vanquished his rivals in an assortment of sports, which won him the hand of the excellent princess Yashodhara, who was likewise sixteen years of age at that point. He kept living in the advantage of his castles. Before long, in any case, he became eager and started to think about what occurs outside the castle. He in the end demanded to be allowed to come out of the royal residence so he can see his kin and his territories. Because of a paranoid fear of the ruler having a strict existence, the lord requested that solitary youthful and solid individuals ought to welcome the sovereign with the goal that he won't see the sort of affliction. Be that as it may, even with the king’s cautious requests, he despite everything got a quick look at a few elderly people men, who inadvertently meandered close to the procession course, at Kapilavatthu, the capital. Inquisitive of who these individuals were, he pursued them. He at that point went to a spot where a few people are frantically sick and even ran over a burial service function by the side of the stream, seeing passing without precedent for his life. Siddhartha saw four sights: a wiped out man, a poor man, a bum, and a cadaver. At the point when he got a quick look at these, his heart before long loaded up with huge forlornness for the enduring that humankind needs to experience. He at that point asked his companion and assistant Chandaka what those things implied. Chandaka revealed to him that we all develop old, wiped out and in the end, kick the bucket, saying that these facts ought to have been advised to him previously. (Boeree, 1999). He said after observing these real factors: â€Å"When oblivious individuals see somebody who is old, they are nauseated and alarmed, despite the fact that they also will be old sometime in the future. I contemplated internally: I don’t need to resemble the oblivious individuals. From that point onward, I couldn’t feel the standard inebriation with youth any longer. At the point when uninformed individuals see somebody who is wiped out, they are sickened and alarmed, despite the fact that they also will be debilitated sometime in the not so distant future. I pondered internally: I don’t need to resemble the uninformed individuals. From that point forward, I couldn’t feel the typical inebriation with wellbeing any longer. At the point when oblivious individuals see somebody who is dead, they are nauseated and sickened, despite the fact that they also will be dead sometime in the not so distant future. I pondered internally: I don’t need to resemble the oblivious individuals. After than, I couldn’t feel the standard inebriation with life any longer. † (AN III. 39, deciphered) (Boeree, 1999) He likewise observed an austere or a priest who has surrendered all the delights and longings of the tissue. What struck Siddhartha the most is the serene appearance on the monk’s face, which left a profound impact on him. Returning to the royal residence after this and in spite of having what gave off an impression of being the ideal existence of extravagance, Siddhartha turned out to be exceptionally discontent with the material world and chose to leave his family. He understood that he could not, at this point live content with the idea that, even with all their extravagance, there would in any case come a period that he will endure and pass on. With these considerations, he before long thought about what he may do so he can beat enduring, more than all else. He left his favored life as a ruler and fled to the backwoods looking for otherworldly understanding. For some time, he concentrated with two notable masters of that time yet before long found that their training isn't sufficient to respond to his inquiry. That was the point at which he started to follow the acts of a gathering of five monks: severities and self-humiliations. For a long time, he rehearsed with most extreme truthfulness and power that the five monks turned into his devotees in a little while. Be that as it may, he despite everything didn't discover the appropriate responses he was searching for. He chose to try harder by denying food and water until he was in a condition of close to death. At some point, Sujata, a laborer young lady saw this destitute priest. She had compassion for him and offered him to eat a portion of her milk-rice. Before long, he understood that self-embarrassment despite everything don't assist him with responding to his inquiries. He chose to do a training that will be center route between the limits of sumptuous and self-embarrassment life. For a long time, Siddhartha sat underneath a specific fig tree, called the bodhi tree, in the town of Bodh Gaya, vowing that he will never stand up until he found the responses to the issue of affliction. From the start, he profoundly packed in clearing his brain from all interruptions, and later on, in thoughtless contemplation. They said that he began to review all his past lives, and see everything that was going on in the whole universe. He turned into the Buddha, which means â€Å"he who is awake†, with the ascending of the morning star on the full moon of May, when he at last found the appropriate responses he was searching for (Hooker, 1996). He spent the following forty five years showing others the way to edification. After a thorough service he kicked the bucket around 483 B. C. E. During his life, none of Siddhartha Gautama’s lessons were ever recorded. During the accompanying 100 years after his demise, Buddhism spread all through India and Sri Lanka. A gathering of Buddhist priests held a committee in the Capital city of Patna, during the third century B. C. E. , to go to an accord on what the first lessons of Siddhartha were. At the point when the chamber came to understanding about Siddhartha’s genuine unique lessons, the lessons turned into the principle of Theravada Buddhism. Theravada Buddhism has not strayed from this convention since. Theravada Buddhism’s fundamental objective is for the individual expert to arrive at Nirvana. This is practiced by understanding the very establishment of Buddhism which was the â€Å"Four Noble Truths†: The Four Noble Truths: 1. ) All human life is enduring (dhukka ). 2. ) All enduring is brought about by human want, especially the craving that ephemeral things be lasting. 3. ) Human enduring can be finished by closure human want. 4. ) Desire can be finished by following the â€Å"Eightfold Noble Path†: right seeing, right idea, right discourse, right activity, right vocation, right exertion, right care, and right focus (Bullitt, 2005). The professional should likewise follow the Eight Fold Path; 1. ) right view, 2. ) right purpose, 3. ) right discourse, 4. ) right activity, 5. ) right vocation, 6. ) right exertion, 7. ) right care, and 8. ) right fixation. The board all additionally concurred in rehearsing the â€Å"Four Cardinal virtues† which were amicability, sympathy, happiness, and composure. During the beginning of Buddhism, the religion involved truth be told, not many supporters making it moderately immaterial among the huge assortment of Hindu factions. Yet, when Asoka, the incomparable Mauryan sovereign changed over to Buddhism in the third century BC, the youthful and unimportant religion before long spread plentifully all through India and was conveyed over the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka. Much the same as bits of gossip change as they are spread from individual to individual, Buddhism was somewhat adjusted after some time. The first structure Theravada Buddhism, held its ground in Sri Lanka as the Buddhists of Sri Lanka kept up a structure that was generally like the first type of Siddhartha’s lessons. Then again, the remainder of India, at that point the world by and large later on, Buddhism divided into a million orders and forms. Theravada Buddhism requires concentrated reflection. To follow his type of Buddhism requires the specialist to dedicate a lifetime to its training, in this way making it troublesome or even imposable for the normal current individual to focus on such an endeavor. Regardless of the extraordinary requests of Theravada Buddhism, it is picking up prominence in Singapore, Australia just as different pieces of the western world. There are more than 100 million Theravada Buddhists around the world. Theravada has had less achievement spreading than different types of Buddhism. Types of Buddhism, for example, Zen are substantially more easy to understand and are less requesting. Theravada Buddhism probably won't be the most mainstream, yet it stays consistent with lessons of the virtuoso who established the religion. Similarly too, Buddhism is truth be told, a lifestyle. References: Boeree, D. C. G. (1999). The Life of Siddhartha Gautama. Recovered February 21, 2007, from http://webspace. transport. edu/cgboer/siddhartha. html Bullitt, J. (2005). What is Theravada Buddhism? Hooker, R. (1996). The Historical Siddhartha [Electronic Version]. Recovered February 21, 2007 from http://www. wsu. edu/~dee/BUDDHISM/SIDD. HTM. Step by step instructions to refer to Buddhism: The Foundation, Development and Beliefs, Papers

European & Equity Law of UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

European and Equity Law of UK - Essay Example The Treaty commits UK to administer in accordance with the global law in making sure about all inclusive human rights it visualizes. The Treaty additionally settled the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) to give singular British residents an intrigue alternative for the individuals who feel that their privileges have been damaged under the nearby law (Davies, and Virgo, 2013). Accordingly, numerous UK residents have recorded their interests at the Strasbourg Court, with a greater part of the cases being chosen in support of them and in this manner heaping more weight on UK government to make increasingly liberal laws. Such EU Decisions provoked the UK parliament to pass the Human Rights Act 1998, which has been as a result since 2000. The Act is regarded as a neighborhood impression of the human rights arrangements under the EU Convention, which the Labor government guaranteed the voters in 1997. The training of the EU law seemingly guarantees equity by constraining the expense and time of pursueing equity at the Strasbourg Court. The HRA Act 1998 likewise forced a commitment on the neighborhood UK courts to embrace the points of reference set by the ECtHR while thinking comparative cases in a way that clarifies the gigantic effect on nearby law. If nearby courts and parliament can't help contradicting the worldwide law, UK would be regarded as neglecting to shield singular rights. All things considered, I trust UK would be making careful effort to battle off contentions that it is in absolute infringement of its worldwide obligations under the arrangement. The ECtHR has in it its decisions endeavored to make concordance with neighborhood state systems by guaranteeing that its decisions are adaptable under the guideline of edge of appreciation. When giving its decisions on cases, this rule gives expresses some opportunity in upholding human rights dependent on their altered needs. In any case, this has been deficient on the issues where London unmistakably is in strife with the ECtHR choices. In the ongoing past, UK’s government has been in

How to Apologize Sincerely and Effectively

How to Apologize Sincerely and Effectively Stress Management Situational Stress Print How to Apologize More Sincerely By Elizabeth Scott, MS twitter Elizabeth Scott, MS, is a wellness coach specializing in stress management and quality of life, and the author of 8 Keys to Stress Management. Learn about our editorial policy Elizabeth Scott, MS Updated on January 02, 2020 Elke Vogelsang/ Getty Images More in Stress Management Situational Stress Effects on Health Management Techniques Job Stress Household Stress Relationship Stress Relationships can be wonderful buffers against stress, but relationship conflicts can cause considerable emotional pain and stress. Knowing how to apologizeâ€"and whenâ€"can repair damage in a relationship, but if you dont know how to apologize sincerely, you can actually make things worse. Effective apologies are simple if you know what to say. Here are some easy steps to help you learn how to apologize sincerely and effectively. Understand Reasons to Apologize When youve made a mistake or hurt another person, there are many good reasons why you should apologize. By apologizing, you are able to: Open up a line of communication with the other personExpress your regret and remorseAcknowledge that you were wrongDiscuss what is allowed and not allowed in your relationshipLearn from your mistakes and find new ways of dealing with difficult situations A sincere apology can also bring relief, particularly if you have guilt over your actions. An apology alone doesnt erase the hurt or make it ok; it does establish that you know your actions or words were wrong and that you will strive harder in the future to prevent it from happening again. Not apologizing when you are wrong can be damaging to your personal and professional relationships. It can also lead to rumination, anger, resentment, and hostility that may only grow over time. Research suggests that some of the major reasons why people dont apologize are that they arent really concerned about the other person, apologizing threatens their own self-image, or they believe that an apology wont do any good anyway.   Why Apologies Are Important Know When to Apologize Knowing when to apologize is as important as knowing how to apologize. Generally speaking, if you suspect that something you did â€"on purpose or by accidentâ€"caused someone else hard feelings, its a good idea to apologize and clear the air. If what you did would have bothered you if it was done to you, an apology is clearly in order. If youre not sure, an apology offers you the chance to own mistakes you made, but re-establish what you think was okay. If you feel the other person is being unreasonable, a discussion may be in order. You can decide where you stand on the apology after that. While a sincere apology can go a long way toward mending a relationship, people are often unwilling or unable to take this step. Admitting you were wrong can be difficult and humbling. Researchers have found that people who believe that personality is changeable are more likely to apologize for harmful actions.?? Because they feel that change is possible, they feel that accepting the blame for their mistakes is an opportunity for learning and growth. Take Responsibility Taking responsibility means acknowledging mistakes you made that hurt the other person, and its one of the most important and neglected ingredients of most apologies, especially those in the media. Saying something vague like, “I’m sorry if you were offended by something I said,” implies that the hurt feelings were a random reaction on the part of the other person. Saying, “When I said [the hurtful thing], I wasn’t thinking. I realize I hurt your feelings, and I’m sorry,” acknowledges that you know what it was you said that hurt the other person, and you take responsibility for it. Dont make assumptions and dont try to shift the blame. Make it clear that you regret your actions and that you are sincerely sorry. Express Regret When seeking to understand how to apologize effectively, it’s also important to understand the value of expressing regret. Taking responsibility is important, but it’s also helpful for the other person to know that you feel bad about hurting them, and wish you hadn’t. That’s it. They already feel bad, and they’d like to know that you feel bad about them feeling bad. What to Say “I wish I had been more thoughtful.” “I wish I’d thought of your feelings as well.” “I wish I could take it back.” These are all expressions of regret that add to the sincerity of your apology and let the other person know you care. Make Amends If there’s anything you can do to amend the situation, do it. It’s important to know how to apologize with sincerity, and part of the sincerity of an apology is a willingness to put some action into it. If you broke something of someone’s, see if you can replace it. If you said something hurtful, say some nice things that can help to generate more positive feelings. If you broke trust, see what you can do to rebuild it. Whatever you can do to make things better, do it. If you’re not sure what would help, ask the other person what you can do to help them to feel better. Reaffirm Boundaries One of the most important parts of an apologyâ€"one of the best reasons to apologizeâ€"is to reaffirm boundaries. Healthy boundaries are important in any relationship.  When you come into conflict with someone, usually there is a boundary that is crossed. If a social rule is violated or trust is broken, an apology helps to affirm what kind of future behavior is preferred. Discussing what type of rules you both will adhere to in the future will rebuild trust, boundaries, and positive feelings, and provides a natural segue out of the conflict, and into a happier future in the relationship. Own up to Your Partâ€"Not Theirs Remember that when you apologize, youre taking responsibility for your part of the conflict. That doesnt mean that youre admitting that the entire conflict was your fault. People are often afraid to apologize first because they think whoever apologizes first is more wrong or the loser of the conflict. Giving an apology even when only a small part of the conflict was your responsibility is okay, and often healthy. It allows you to establish what you regret your own actions but confirms your own boundaries as well. Its important to be fair in your apology, both to the other person and to yourself. Dont accept all the blame if it isnt all your fault. Apologize for the Right Reasons   When you apologize for just what you did, you can more easily move forward and put the conflict behind you, regardless of the other persons actions. When we apologize, were able to more easily maintain the integrity and forgive ourselves. The other person may be moved to apologize for their actions as well. While getting an apology is often nice, it is important to remember that this doesnt always happen. Trying to evoke an apology from the other person is a manipulative tactic that sometimes backfires. Apologize for your own peace of mind and the other person may be inspired to do the same. Just dont apologize just because you expect an apology in return. Let Go of Resultsâ€"to an Extent Although apologizing can be a way to maintain the integrity and move on from actions were not proud of, most of us also want to repair the relationship and be forgiven. Sometimes this doesnt happen. If the apology was sincere and included the necessary ingredients, your chances of forgiveness are greater, but sometimes the other person just isnt ready or able to forgive and move on. Or they may forgive you, but still, be guarded. Or they may not realize their own role in the conflict. Realize that you cant control their response, and if youve done everything you can, let it go for now. A Word From Verywell Apologies are not always easy, but that can be an important part of mending or maintaining important relationships. With empathy, an open heart, and a dose of courage, you can take the steps you need to make a sincere and honest apology. How to Forgive Others

The Most Problematic Social and Economic Problem in...

Identity Theft might just be the most problematic social and economic problem in the US. Identity theft can cause many problems for the victim and the thief, obviously. One problem is the victims personal record, it is extremely important to have a clean one if you want to apply for college, buy a house, become a citizen, etc. Another problem is after the identity theft has taken their toll, the victim is suffering with trying to recover all the money that they have lost. And the most dangerous problem is victims can be accused of crimes that they have not committed. These are just a few reasons why Identity Theft is the most problematic social and economic problem in today’s society. Now a days, it’s important to own a clean personal†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Seniors have also spent their entire working life building a nest egg of retirement funds. Identity thieves know this and they target seniors to take their identity and their finances. Their preferred method is the telephone. According to the National Crime Prevention Council, senior citizens are more at risk to be targeted by telemarketing scams than other age groups† (Crimes). Elderlies are a lot more trusting of people and less probably to report fraud most likely because they don’t need members of the family to assume they cant lookout of themselves. Once the identity thief has taken their toll the victim is suffering with making an attempt to recover all the knowledge that they have lost. One of the most devastating effects of economic fraud is once the cash they’ve worked laboriously to save suddenly goes missing. Bank policies vary as to what proportion theyll replace, except for several fraud victims, this cash is gone forever. Erasing deceitful charges and correcting their credit record takes time and cash. â€Å"The average victim spends 500 hours and $3,000 undoing the damage from identity theft which just adds on how much money they’ve lost† (How do you help protect my identity†). If a criminal gets the victims social insurance number, they will begin assembling their advantages or take employment using their name, departure them responsible for the thief’sShow MoreRelatedChild Abuse and Neglect922 Words   |  4 PagesASSIGNMENT 1: SOCIAL ISSUE- CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT KIM CARTER SOCIOLOGY PROFESSOR PATRICIA HENNINGTON JANRUARY 29, 2012 Child abuse and neglect The issue of child abuse and neglect is serious, controversial, and is escalating in today’s society. Many people are not aware, but child abuse is rampant in our society. Many child abuse and neglect cases go unreported because a person may not know the signs and symptoms of child abuse and neglect or perhaps the person or person may feel that thisRead More Drugs Essay1467 Words   |  6 Pages The United States is by far the richest and most powerful country in the world. We citizens take for granted luxuries that people of other countries can only dream. 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The History of TV Shows and TV Family Programs - 2375 Words

The representation of TV fatherhood has transformed largely in recent decades. Father figures on TV have undergone a wide social transition, whereby earlier portrayals of fathers were idealized as strong, revered characters that acted as the disciplinarians. However, due to factors such as the rise of feminism and the World Wars, audiences began changing their stances, expectations, and attitudes toward father figures. This gave way to new family shows that reflected this change in society. The authority of father figures on TV in the 1980s began to be ridiculed, and shifted from a know-it-all to a clueless individual. An example of this would be Everybody Loves Raymond. Shows also emerged where there were dual-income parents as well as stay-at-home fathers. This was a drastic change from the 1950s dad who worked a steady job, lived in a middle-class suburban bubble, and whose wife was a picture-perfect stay at home mom. What could have influenced TV so strongly? American society h as been impacted by several factors such as the rise of feminism, the Watergate scandal, and the World Wars. These events played a major role in shaping television today as it changed society’s views and attitudes toward the family dynamic. The rise of feminism is a major contributor to the changing roles of fathers on TV. Feminism first arose in 1920’s when women were granted their basic human right to vote, but it wasn’t until the 1960’s where it really took off. We began seeing women in theShow MoreRelatedTelevision Is An Essential Means Of Socialization1258 Words   |  6 Pagesdiscovered, covered only a couple programs like sports and news, with very poor quality. Current day and age, television covers thousands of programs with 3D and hi-definition television pictures with screens as big as 75 inches. Television is an essential means of socialization. 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There are many positive aspects of good TV shows. It can promote early reading, teach songs, and teach good values children need in life. The negative aspects of bad TV shows are that it can teach children bad language, violence, and inappropriate behaviorRead MoreThe Social And Emotional State Of Good Tv Shows1270 Words   |  6 Pages#10 To watch or Not to watch? Do you know what your kids are watching on TV these days? My topic is, â€Å"What is the social and emotional state of good TV shows vs bad TV shows.† I think my topic is important because TV is very influnetly to children. There are many positive aspects of good TV shows. It can promote early reading, teach songs, and teach good values children need in life. The negative aspects of bad TV shows are that it can teach children bad language, violence, and inappropriate behavior

School Find Ways to Save Money Free Essays

Carlson (2009) wrote an article, â€Å"Conservation helps schools spend on students, not energy†, that clearly defines the benefits of energy conservation in reducing school districts’ utility cost while saving a huge amount of taxpayer’s money. With the recommendation and help from the consulting firm, Energy Education, Inc. a program was created to monitor the usage of utilities and to implement proper ways of conserving electricity, gas and water. We will write a custom essay sample on School Find Ways to Save Money or any similar topic only for you Order Now Oxnard School District, Las Virgenes Unified School District as well as the school districts in Ventura County have taken a bold step in hiring energy educators and managers. The risk that these school districts have taken proved to be a worthwhile endeavor as the savings generated from limiting energy use was rerouted towards the improvement of classrooms and educational services. The success of the energy conservation program in a limited number of districts is a wake up call to the rest of the school districts nationwide as current economic crisis and high cost of gasoline will have an impact on the school budget. In addition, a similar scheme may be applied to household and business establishments as the cost of utilities is a major concern of entrepreneurs and family members. The article shows that there are practical solutions in reducing operating expenses without sacrificing school districts’ budget that may be intended for classroom purposes, teacher’s salaries, in-service trainings and other educational programs. The solution often lies in the administrator’s willingness to keep an open mind, to take a concerted risk and to accept a new concept. The reluctance in changing a behavior that can make a difference may impede the growth of a sector that relies heavily on taxpayer’s money to meet the budgetary requirements of a system that is responsible for building a solid future for students who will be in charge of shaping the growth of our nation. Reference Carlson, C. (2009). â€Å"Conservation helps schools spend on students, not energy†.   Retrieved April 2, 2009 from http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/feb/08/nb1FCenergy08/ How to cite School Find Ways to Save Money, Papers

School Find Ways to Save Money Free Essays

Carlson (2009) wrote an article, â€Å"Conservation helps schools spend on students, not energy†, that clearly defines the benefits of energy conservation in reducing school districts’ utility cost while saving a huge amount of taxpayer’s money. With the recommendation and help from the consulting firm, Energy Education, Inc. a program was created to monitor the usage of utilities and to implement proper ways of conserving electricity, gas and water. We will write a custom essay sample on School Find Ways to Save Money or any similar topic only for you Order Now Oxnard School District, Las Virgenes Unified School District as well as the school districts in Ventura County have taken a bold step in hiring energy educators and managers. The risk that these school districts have taken proved to be a worthwhile endeavor as the savings generated from limiting energy use was rerouted towards the improvement of classrooms and educational services. The success of the energy conservation program in a limited number of districts is a wake up call to the rest of the school districts nationwide as current economic crisis and high cost of gasoline will have an impact on the school budget. In addition, a similar scheme may be applied to household and business establishments as the cost of utilities is a major concern of entrepreneurs and family members. The article shows that there are practical solutions in reducing operating expenses without sacrificing school districts’ budget that may be intended for classroom purposes, teacher’s salaries, in-service trainings and other educational programs. The solution often lies in the administrator’s willingness to keep an open mind, to take a concerted risk and to accept a new concept. The reluctance in changing a behavior that can make a difference may impede the growth of a sector that relies heavily on taxpayer’s money to meet the budgetary requirements of a system that is responsible for building a solid future for students who will be in charge of shaping the growth of our nation. Reference Carlson, C. (2009). â€Å"Conservation helps schools spend on students, not energy†.   Retrieved April 2, 2009 from http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/feb/08/nb1FCenergy08/ How to cite School Find Ways to Save Money, Papers

Invitation and Recruitment Practices in Research †MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Invitation and Recruitment Practices in Research. Answer: Introduction The main objective of this assignment is bring out that if the customers under the law of contact can legally enforce the agreement that Alan had proposed before he put up a notice on the board regarding the advertisement he had published in the newspaper for giving manicure and pedicure at low rates. This paper also throws light on the consequence that will be faced by Allan if he argued that $15 for manicure and pedicure is very less. This essay will also talk about the legal issues in relation to the free haircut he has promised which is not given to Jill due to coming later than 7 days. Are the 40 customers who produced the advertisement eligible to enforce any legal agreement advertisement before the notice was put up on the window? When an advertisement[1] is made as an offer it is considered to be a unilateral contract or bilateral contract. In the case of Alan, this advertisement made by him was considered to be a bilateral contract. As, he had specified as a special offer in a newspaper advertisement that he would give manicure and pedicure to the customers for $15 on the production of the advertisement. The 40 customers who had produced the advertisement to Alan before the notice was put up by him on the board stating that the advertisement had now been exhausted, are legally enforceable[2] to get their manicure and pedicure for $15. As this was considered as an invitation to treat and have the scope to be bargained in the future, as they are temporary in nature. Hence, it can be said that the advertisement by Alan was an offer made to increase his clients. Thus, he will be liable to them. A contract has specific rules that have to be followed by both the parties. This advertisement was a bilateral contract and only the parties to such offer can avail the services that would oblige by the terms and conditions[3] mentioned in it. Not abiding by it would lead to breach of contract. It was clearly mentioned in the advertisement by Alan that only those customers can avail his services of getting manicure and pedicure for $15 who would produce the advertisement. These customers could not avail any special service of $15 nor could they enforce the agreement[4] against Alan as they did not abide by the rules of the contract. In a contract there is an offer made and there has been an acceptance. In a bilateral contract there is nothing permanent as there are chances of the product getting over or exhausted. It is also unreasonable to expect the advertisement to sell to everyone as there are high chances of the product or services getting exhausted. The advertisement made by Alan was invitation[5] to treat which an invitation is made to the customers to submit themselves to the offer. The willingness of Alan to make a deal is seen clearly in the advertisement. But it does not have the elements of an offer, sometimes it can be stated as an invitation to bargain. This is an invitation for the public to come and avail the services that have been offered by Alan. It was Alans own terms and conditions he had put in the newspaper advertisement as a special offer to attract customers. On getting a lot of response he thought his salon would suffer loss[6], he had the power to stop the services, but he could not change the price of the $15 manicure and pedicure to $60 just because he later realised he would go into loss. Application This invitation to treat or bid does not fall under the category of offer until there is any further negotiation. Generally, the party making the invitation does it individually and the other parties to whom it is issued may accept it or reject it on their own whims and boons. When Alan withdraws his promotion he can charge his clients the normal rate for manicure and pedicure and he is no longer liable for any obligations for his special offer. Alan had put up an advertisement saying that up to $75 will make your nails look good, and also stated that anyone who did not get a date within 7 days of getting manicure and pedicure will get a free haircut. Jill did not since she comes 14 days late. Will Alan have to provide her with it? Invitation to a treat is not considered as an offer. Since there is no negotiations involved. There are no expressed or implied[7] terms involved. The invitation is made clear and precise. There is a time frame made for accepting such an invitation. A closing date should be made to avoid any confusion. By specifying a closing date of 7 days to avail free haircut, Alan has made his invitation very clear. Hence, he will not have to comply with anyone who comes after 7 days to avai[8]l the free haircut he has to offer. But he cannot withdraw is offer before the dead line in that case he will be liable to his customers. Had Alan not specified an expiry time of the free haircut service his offer could be revoked. We can see this in the case of Murray V Rennie Angus, the outcome of this case was that there was a quotation to carry out a masonry work which was open for acceptance 11 days later. Conclusion Generally contract is an agreement between two parties and there has to be some form of negotiations. In an invitation to treat there is no mandatory acceptance it is open to all. In Alans case he had made a special offer in the newspaper to invite customers. Thus, he was entitled to give the 40 customers the offer they had availed. But at the same time he was not liable to give any special service to the 20 customers who did not produce the advertisement. Also he could not in the special contract increase the cost of the services just because he was suffering loss, he could only do so after the expiry of his special service. Alan was also not liable to Jill for she came 14 days later to avail her free haircut and it was clearly mentioned that free haircut could only be given with 7 days. Reference List: Bishop, Jonathan. "My Click is My Bond: The Role of Contracts, Social Proof."Gamification for Human Factors Integration: Social, Education, and Psychological Issues: Social, Education, and Psychological Issues(2014): 1. Candy, B., et al. "Exploring Invitation and Recruitment Practices in Research with Children and Young People with Life Limiting Conditions (LLC) or Life Threatening Illnesses (LTI) and their Families-A Systematic Review." Hayward Medical Communications, 2015. Jobes, Karen H., and Moiss Silva.Invitation to the Septuagint. Baker Academic, 2015. Khan, Ashraful Islam, et al. "Early invitation to food and/or multiple micronutrient supplementation in pregnancy does not affect body composition in offspring at 54 months: follow?up of the MINIMat randomised trial, Bangladesh."Maternal child nutrition11.3 (2015): 385-397. Li, Yi Lut, and Rita Yi Man Li. "An Offer, An Invitation to Treat and Transaction Costs."Law, Economics and Finance of the Real Estate Market. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2014. 95-104. Nyondo, Alinane Linda, et al. "Invitation cards during pregnancy enhance male partner involvement in prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Blantyre, Malawi: a randomized controlled open label trial."PLoS One10.3 (2015): e0119273. Sparrow, Andrew.Film and television distribution and the Internet: a legal guide for the media industry. CRC Press, 2016. Urban, Randall J., et al. "Translational studies in older men using testosterone to treat sarcopenia."Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association125 (2014): 27.

A Rose, The Universal Symbol Of Love Essays - A Rose For Emily

A Rose, the Universal Symbol of Love In William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily, Miss Emily Grierson is a lonely old woman, living a life void of all love and affection; although the rose only directly appears in the title, the rose surfaces throughout the story as a symbol. In contemporary times, the rose also symbolizes emotions like love and friendship. The rose symbolizes dreams of romances and lovers. These dreams belong to women, who like Emily Grierson, have yet to experience true love for themselves. Throughout the life of Emily Grierson, she remains locked up, never experiencing love from anyone but her father. She lives a life of loneliness, left only to dream of the love missing from her life. The rose from the title symbolizes this absent love. It symbolizes the roses and flowers that Emily never received, the lovers that overlooked her. The domineering attitude of Emily's father keeps her to himself, inside the house, and alone until his death. In his own way, Emily's father shows her how to love. Through a forced obligation to love only him, as he drives off young male callers, he teaches his daughter lessons of love. It is this dysfunctional love that resurfaces later, because it is the only way Emily knows how to love. When Homer Baron, a construction worker, comes into Emily's life he sheds hope into her life. He offers Emily a chance to feel love and to receive the affection she has previously only dreamed of. Together they take Sunday carriage rides, and for awhile, the town's people seem to think that Emily will finally wed. It appears to them that Emily has finally found her rose. Emily then sets out to fulfill the ultimate form of the rose dream, that of marriage. She purchases a man's toilet set in silver, with the letters H.B. on each piece and a complete outfit of men's clothing, including a nightshirt. However, Homer disappears when his work is through, leaving Emily once again without a rose. Within a couple of Adams 2 weeks Homer, is seen entering Emily's house late at night. Emily realizes that Homer has no plans to stay, so she demonstrates her love the only way she knows how, by killing him. In her own way, she forces Homer to love her and to stay with her. In doing so, Emily's rose wilts forever. Following Emily's death, the townspeople enter her bedroom to find a shocking sight. The room appears decked and furnished as for a bridal. A rose color drapes over the room, upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights. The wilted image of the rose permeates the room, symbolizing the tarnished love between Emily and Homer. Unfortunately, the love that Emily knew proves impermanent. The rose, and the love it symbolizes, die along with Homer. This love disappears forever as Homer enters the long sleep that outlasts love, that conquers even the grimace of love. Today, a rose can symbolize many emotions, from passionate love and true friendship to sympathy and regret. As in A Rose for Emily, not all roses are the same. Only roses of true love last forever. The wilted roses of forced and obligated love, like Emily's, cannot stand the tests of time, and eventually die. In life today, roses of all types exists, and are not always what they first appear to be. Like Emily, contemporary women also dream of receiving flowers, usually roses. In doing so, they dream of the romances and loves from their past, as well as those yet to come. The meaning of the rose crosses generations, appearing in stories written yesterday, as well as fairy tales from centuries ago. The rose bridges language barriers and spans continents. The rose is the true universal symbol of love.

APA Style Term Paper

APA Style Term Paper APA Style Term Paper APA Style Term Paper APA style term paper is one of the widely used format for term paper writing. Before writing term paper, you are welcome to examine the following term paper writing tips: One of the main term paper requirements is that the term paper should be typed. While typing your academic term paper in Microsoft Word, use a default setting of the computer. If you don't know the length of your academic term paper you should ask your tutor about this.   The title of the English term paper should be centered but not underline. Use 12 point Times New Roman or Arial font. In the bottom corner of the term paper write personal data (your name, course, date, etc.) The layout should be general. Do not include too many quotations; it certainly will not improve your academic term paper. Every page should have centered title at the top of the term paper. Use double spacing format. Using in-text citation requires a reference page at the end of the term paper. In-text citations may be both direct quotations and paraphrases. Both must be cited on the reference page, otherwise, you will be accused in plagiarism. Quotations may be short as well as long. Quotation should be less than 40 words. The direct quotation should be enclosed in brackets ( ) and reference information should be placed close to it, for example (Andrew, 1999). Keep in mind that different methods of citation make your work more interesting to read. Paraphrases usually go at the end of the line of your work. APA does not require page numbers, but your tutor probably does. Author/Year of work is the general format, if author is not known than following this format Title/Year of work. If you do not know the date of publication, you use (n.d. - no date. You should note down references as you conduct your research. Remember, references should be double spaced. The reference page should be alphabetized by author's name and the title of the work. Don't write 'The' when compiling a reference list. If you used Internet sources while writing term paper, give a complete URL address and the date of access. While writing term paper, avoid repetition of the words. The academic term paper will look thoughtless with the same words within several sentences. You should also avoid repetition of the ideas. If this was noticed the tutor would conclude that you have a lack of clarity of thought. Avoid these mistakes.   Custom Written Term Paper Not all students have time and skills to write a great term paper.   We are here to help these students with term paper writing.   We offer only custom service - it means that your term paper is not copy/pasted from internet, it is written in accordance to your instructions.   No late deliveries at .com!   No plagiarism!

The nature and importance risk management to businesses Assignment

The nature and importance risk management to businesses - Assignment Example A large firm’s cost of capital must rely only on its framework, not the entire risk of the organisation because investors can omit the manifold risks of single firms by grasping a well-variegated portfolio (McShane et al., 2011, p. 644). 3.0 Risk Management 3.1 Nature Business risk management is a process that can aid the firm determine risk situations and regulate the relevant risks. Nations such as South Africa, United Kingdom, and Australia have been adapting the framework of business risk management. It should be fathomed that risks potentially existed in any type of business organisation because one firm cannot withstand the industrial setting without encountering diversified forms of risks. There is, therefore, a spice to light up the world of business for organisational leaders to remain active. The risks are accompanied with hazards, which can cause harm and can be fatal to any perspectives. Where there are risks and hazards, there should be a proper regulation of busi ness risk management in order to annihilate the cause of its emergence. However, in today’s business environment, it is difficult to determine risk management of organisations because they are not postulated to disclose their business risk management framework (Gates et al., 2012, pp. 28-36). 3.2 Significance What signifies business risk management is that it can be utilised by business organisations to annihilate the emergence of hazards, and eventually omit the danger of its accompanied risks. Additionally, organisations with business risk management schemes can improve its organisational performance initially through enabling corporate executives to regulate the firm better. With the presence of business risk...To investigate the after-event of implementing the action plan requires thorough analysis. Such strategy is done to develop the action plan for its re-modification. Written documents should focus on the stakeholders; alongside optimum practices, such as scheduling c onventional meetings of every department. The external environment should be considered in the formulation of strategies; having a well-defined policies and safety programs should also be emphasised (Strong and Shane, 2011). 5.0 Conclusion Small and medium enterprises, as well as large organisations, need to manage risks in order to project the success of its activities and verify the solidity of its sustainable development. However, with the given facts and procedures in managing business risks, small organisations are smoothly impacted by the types of risks the relative industry has given. The optimum exposition that would best benefit large organisations in utilising business risks management is because they have more human resources and large operations compared to small firms. Most significantly, the economic changes in today’s environment create a big impact to a certain large company who does not practice business risk management. Not just hazards doom to backfire risks against firms, it also leads to bring a fast-developed cause to bring business to the catacomb of bankruptcy, insolvency and death.

Human Resource Management - Compensation, Benefits, Incentives Essay

Human Resource Management - Compensation, Benefits, Incentives - Essay Example e that incentives and benefits do very little to persuade a candidate to accept an organizations employment offer if baseline compensation is slightly below the candidates expectations. Of course, each person will try to get a salary that is higher. However, even young candidates will consider benefits and incentives. For instance, a person may be offered an hourly rate that is lower than he/she wishes. However, with free or discounted lunches, longer breaks, a kind manager, flexible hours, accessibility to work (distance), whom he/she will be working with (age group, environment), what he/she will be doing (perhaps working in an area or subject that he/she enjoys), etc. even the younger person will focus on these things and will realize that the benefits/incentives add to their quality of life. IF the younger person does seek the higher salary, eventually the extrinsic values of a job such as money will not be the overriding factor. He/she will eventually want more out of life if he/she is not happy with who they are working for, does not get discounts, enjoyable working atmosphere, etc. and will seek those things in a job. He/she will eventually quit the job and seek the intrinsic values. That is why younger people do not usually stay with a job for an extended amount of time. They move on. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rules but we humans will seek intrinsic values more even if it’s only internally. Look at the very wealthy people; i.e. movie stars. They have all the money in the world and yet file bankruptcy, have broken relationships, do drugs, get in trouble with the law, etc. They want more. It is true, younger people will look at baseline pay first. However, if the baseline pay is â€Å"slightly lower† as the very opening post stated, they will also look at the incentives/benefits even if the benefits aren’t so great. As stated in my earlier posting, if the pay is good but the other factors, which are called intrinsic

Critical Success Factors in Supply Chain Management

Critical Success Factors in Supply Chain Management ABSTRACT In todays turbulent economic environment, firms are striving for ways to achieve competitive advantage. One of the approaches is to manage the entire supply chain to reduce costs and improve performance to create competitive advantage and business success. This dissertation explores and investigates how high technology firms use supply chain management to gain competitive advantage and increase business success. The research objective is to determine the critical success factors in supply chain management at high technology companies. This dissertation provides a theoretical framework to understand a firms performance and argues that supply chain management will help a firm to be competitive and successful. To this end, the critical success factors that make a company more competitive are identified. The research design is based on the established and recommended procedures of multiple case study research methodology; and this methodology is used to gather data from five companies in California, USA. The analysis is based primarily on cross-case analysis for the purpose of theoretical generalization about the research issues. The results identify two clusters of company behavior and characteristics, specifically traditional ‘old style manufacturing companies and progressive manufacturing companies. Each cluster of company behaves differently. At the traditional manufacturing companies, the selection of critical supply chain management factors is internally focused on factors that are manufacturing and quality focused, while at the progressive manufacturing companies the selection of critical supply chain management factors is externally focused on factors that are directed to customers and information systems. There are differences between critical supply chain management factors at high technology companies and benchmark (or commodity) companies that were selected in this study. The benchmark companies select supply chain management factors that focus on customer services and quality. This approach is, possibly, due to the fact that the benchmark companies deal in commodity type products and hence they have to focus on differentiating themselves through strong customer services and quality products. Additionally, with the help of supply chain metrics, financial performance data, and understanding the various companies, it is possible to determine which critical supply chain factors best can contribute to business performance. At the case study companies, an external focus on supply chain management factors such as a strong focus on customer relationship and management, gives better business results. Finally, this study has proposed a novel and new approach to improving customer satisfaction by using QFD methodology to identify performance gaps (and opportunities) from the customers viewpoint in supply chain management. If the companies wish to increase customer satisfaction, they have to use the QFD methodology to identify critical supply chain factors. The reason is primarily because performance gaps derived from customer needs emphasize what the customer wants and that is different from the internal perceptions of a companys managers. The initiatives that provide the greatest opportunity have been identified in this analysis. Overall, these findings can be used by high technology firms to select supply chain strategies that will lead to sustainable competitive advantage and hence improve their brand and business performance. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The genesis of this dissertation was a request from a high technology company to investigate the companys supply chain system and identify factors affecting the successful implementation of supply chain management. This chapter serves as an introduction to the dissertation. It comprises eight sections, which cover the background to the research, objective of the research and the research questions, justification and significance of the research, a brief description of the methodology, an outline of the structure of the study, key definitions, delimitations of this research, and the chapters conclusion. 1.1 Background A firms strategies, innovations, and well-planned activities will lead to sustainable competitive advantage and hence improve its brand and business performance. As firms strive for ways to achieve competitive advantage, they are looking for new ideas and solutions. This dissertation addresses the topic of competitive advantage, reviews how firms attempt to achieve it, and focuses on one aspect of competitive advantage managing the supply chain to increase competitive advantage and business success. The early understanding of competitive advantage is based on Leon Walras (1874, 1984) theory of perfect competition. In perfect competition products are homogenous, consumers and producers have perfect information, prices will reach equilibrium, and as a result profits are zero in the long run. A later approach is the Industrial Organization approach (Tirole, 1988), which argues that success comes from market power and a firms efficiency. However, the proponents of this approach agree that in the long term there would be industry equilibrium and little profit. One of the first researchers to propose a theoretical framework for understanding a firms performance is Michael Porter (1980). He takes a strategic and analytical approach to understanding competitive strategy, and argues that, â€Å"Every firm competing in an industry has a competitive strategy, whether explicit or implicit.† Porter asserts that, except for microeconomic theory, the strategy field and literature had offered few analytical techniques for gaining this understanding. Porter (1980) argues that with the right approach it is possible to break away from the economic equilibrium situation and achieve superior performance. Therefore he proposes a framework for analyzing industries and competitors and describes three generic strategies cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. He postulates that to be successful, the firm has to do well in one or more of these strategies. Porters (1980) ideas and proposals on achieving competitive advantage have influenced many other researchers to propose complementary theories on achieving competitive advantage. All the theories proposed by researchers are supported with examples of winning strategies implemented at renowned companies. The theories include an emphasis on planning (Porter, 1980, 1985), strategic approach (Hamel and Prahalad, 1990, 1998; Porter, 1985, 1990, 1991), marketing strategies (Day, 1994, 1999), value chain management (Porter, 1985), and supply chain management (Christopher, 1998; Poirier, 1999; Tyndall et al., 1998). A theory that has gained momentum in the last few years is the concept of supply chain management. In recent years, there have been numerous advances and developments in supply chain techniques and management. One of the reasons is that as trade barriers drop and markets open, competition has become more intense hence companies need to be more competitive and cost effective. An initiative to help achieve this is a supply chain management program. Supply chain management is the management of upstream and downstream activities, resources, and relationships with suppliers and customers, which is required to deliver products or services. In theory, if this is done well it will lead to competitive advantage through differentiation and lower costs as suggested by Porter (1980). Moreover, some researchers claim that effective supply chain management can reduce costs by several percentage points of revenue (Boyson, et. al, 1999). Furthermore, there has been little verification or research d one on measuring competitive advantage gained through supply chain management. Supply chain management is not a static concept or solution. Instead, new advances and techniques for supply chain management continue to mushroom. This tremendous growth in new ideas and processes is starting to influence and change the business processes and models of companies. Hence companies have many choices in selecting programs in supply chain management. In making their choices, companies need to plan for effective supply chain management, in order to gain competitive advantage. However, to ensure that effective supply chain management can provide business success, this study must determine the critical success factors in supply chain management that can provide competitive advantage. Furthermore, these critical success factors must be identified and conveyed to senior management in firms that want to have an effective supply chain management program. 1.2 Objective of this research The objective of this dissertation is to explore and investigate how firms scope, design, and implement supply chain management in order to gain competitive advantage. Most importantly, this dissertation endeavors to determine the critical success factors in supply chain management that can provide competitive advantage. It also explores and investigates the advances and new ideas in supply chain management and examines how firms scope, design, and implement supply chain management in order to gain competitive advantage. The genesis of this dissertation was a request from a high technology company to investigate the companys supply chain system and propose improvements to help make it more competitive. The company is headquartered in California USA, and this author works for one of the companys business unit as General Manager for Distribution. The request was to investigate the companys supply chain management system and to propose improvements that would make it more competitive This dissertation provides a theoretical framework to understand a firms performance and argues that supply chain management is an approach that will help a firm to be competitive and successful. Furthermore, in using supply chain management, firms are faced with choices on what supply chain techniques and developments to adopt for their businesses. This dissertation wil review the choices that high technology companies have today, and will make recommendations to select the best choices, or critical success factors, based on business and customer needs. Therefore, the research objective is to: Determine the critical success factors in supply chain management at high technology companies. In fulfilling this objective, this dissertation also addresses the following research issues: 1. Are there differences between critical supply chain management factors at various high technology companies? 2. Are there differences between critical supply chain management factors at high technology companies and non high technology (or benchmark commodity) companies? 3. Will a focus on external supply chain management factors give better business results? 4. Are perceived critical gaps (and opportunities) in performance derived from traditional methodology similar to those deployed from customer needs? In this study, the critical success factors to make a company more competitive are identified. To ensure a robust analysis and conclusion, the expectations and perceptions of respondents, involved in this study, are taken into consideration as well as customer requirements. 1.3 Significance of the research There are many theories and empirical studies on competitive advantage. However, the empirical studies, using mathematical models, tend to be limited in scope (Porter, 1991; Buzzel and Gale, 1990), and do not include supply chain management parameters. While there has been much research on activities that can provide competitive advantage, there is little knowledge on the process of selection and impact of supply chain management on the competitive position and business performance of a high technology firm. Firms need to understand how supply chain management can help them achieve competitive advantage. Furthermore, there is an expectation that high technology companies will use leading edge technology and invest heavily in supply chain management. This dissertation makes the following contributions: 1. Fulfils a request from a high technology company: The author of this study works for a high technology company, head-quartered in California USA, and was requested to investigate the companys (business unit) supply chain system and propose improvements to help make it more competitive. 2. Identifies the critical success factors in supply chain management from a high technology companys viewpoint. Often when reviewing critical success factors, only the perception of respondents is taken into account. However, in this analysis both the perceptions and expectations of respondents are taken into consideration. Such an analysis will be more robust and will allow performance gaps to be analyzed and understood. 3. Identifies the critical success factors in supply chain management from customers of high technology companies. To enhance the relevance of the conclusions, customer requirements are also taken into consideration by using the quality function deployment (QFD) methodology and these are compared to the high technology companies performance gaps. Such an analysis will allow performance gaps to be analyzed and understood from the viewpoint of customers of high technology companies. 4. Contributes to the understanding of how high technology companies scope, design, and develop their supply chain management system. 1.4 Research Methodology This study employs the qualitative research process using multiple case studies. There are several reasons for this: Since the focus of this research is on high technology companies operating in California, USA, there is a concern that there will be a small number of companies willing to participate in a large (sample size) quantitative survey. Furthermore face-to-face meetings with respondents can help provide understanding and information on several qualitative areas, such as: reasons for implementing specific supply chain factors (or strategies), customer needs data, and discussions and feedback on the questionnaire. Also, cases can be viewed and studied alone and across cases to provide comparison and contrast and richer details and insights regarding the research issues (Eisenhardt 1989; Stake 1994; Yin 1994). Hence this research will be done via a multiple case study approach using structured interviews with a questionnaire (Yin, 1994).5 1.5 Structure of the dissertation In addition to this introductory chapter, this dissertation consists of four chapters ( 1.1). Chapter 2 reviews the relevant literature, addresses the disciplines under investigation, and provides an overview of competitive advantage. The chapter then provides a detailed review of the current literature and practices of supply chain management. With that as the background, chapter 2 continues into identifying gaps in the literature and provides the rationale for selecting the research topic and issues. Chapter 5Conclusion and opportunities for further researchChapter 1IntroductionChapter 3Research methodologyChapter 2Literature review and research issuesChapter 4Data analysis and interpretationsChapter interpretations Chapter 3 discusses the research methodology used for this study and it includes: the justification of the research methodology, a discussion on preparation of the questionnaire and the data gathering process, the process used for data analysis and determining gaps, the process used to generate recommendations from the data, and concludes with a discussion on the limitations of case study research. Chapter 4 summarizes the data collected from the selected companies and respondents and aims to interpret the data in relation to the research objective. Each of the four research issues is analyzed, interpreted, and the detailed findings are presented. The chapter concludes with a summary of the research findings. Chapter 5 provides a summary of the findings and conclusions of the research objective and issues, discusses the contribution of the research findings to the literature and theory, reviews the implications of the findings, discusses the limitations of the research, and concludes with suggested direction for future research. 1.6 Key definitions Definitions adopted by researchers are often not uniform; hence key terms are defined to establish positions taken for this dissertation (Perry 1998). This will ensure that subsequent research, undertaken at a later stage, will better measure and compare what this dissertation has set out to do. †¢ Logistics: The management and movement of product and services, including storage and warehousing, and their transport via air, land, and water (Coyle, Bardi, and Langley, 1988). †¢ Supply chain: Consists of all inter-linked resources and activities needed to create and deliver products and services to customers (Hakanson, 1999). †¢ Supply chain management: This includes managing supply and demand, sourcing raw materials and parts, manufacturing and assembly, distribution across all channels, and delivery to the customer (Supply Chain Council, 2001). †¢ Supply chain agility or agile supply chain: An agile supply chain is one that is flexible and has a business-wide capability that embraces organizational structures, information systems, and logistics processes. (Christopher, 2000) †¢ Critical success factors (CSF): Critical success factors are those few things that must go well to ensure success for a manager or organization, and therefore may represent those managerial or enterprise areas that must be given continual attention. CSFs include issues vital to an organizations current operating activities and to its future success (Boynton and Zmud, 1984). †¢ Customer relationship management (CRM): CRM is the management of technology, processes, information, and people in order to maximize each customer contact by obtaining a 360-degree view of the customer (Galbreath and Rogers, 1999). †¢ Performance gap: This is a gap between the perceived performance and the expected importance of a factor (in this dissertation it is a supply chain factor). The performance gap provides an indication as to whether executives and managers are successful in translating their vision to their employees and hence such perception may give an indication regarding the degree of employees alignment with the organizations vision. If a factor is critical and has a negative value of factor alignment (perceived performance is less than the expectation), then the organization may have a potential problem with that factor. Information on factor alignment allows executives to develop a strategy to overcome the challenges associated with the gaps between importance and performance. (Martilla and James, 1977). †¢ Quality Function Deployment (QFD): QFD is a comprehensive quality tool that can be used to uncover customers spoken and unspoken needs, and convert these needs to product or service design targets and processes (Akao, 1990). 1.7 Delimitation There are several delimitations in this dissertation. †¢ The theoretical model derived from this dissertation is only applicable to the high technology companies. †¢ The dissertation is focused on companies operating geographically in California, United States of America, where there is a concentration of high technology companies. †¢ This dissertation is an exploratory research and will have to be tested for generalizability in later, more extensive, quantitative research (Perry, 1998). †¢ There is no scientific basis for choosing the number of cases in this dissertation. The number selected is based on the experiences and recommendations of the research and academic community (Eisenhardt, 1989; Perry, 1998). 1.8 Conclusion This chapter provides an overview of the dissertation. The aim, objectives, and justification of the research topic were discussed. The dissertation is an investigation on the impact of a supply chain management system on the competitive position of high technology business firms. It explores and investigates new ideas in supply chain management and examines how high technology firms manage and improve their supply chain management system. Furthermore, this dissertation will analyze the gaps and opportunities for supply chain management in high technology companies and give a set of recommendations. The methodology was briefly described, key definitions were explained, delimitations of this research were addressed, and the structure of the dissertation was outlined. With all the important areas of the research briefly introduced in this chapter, the following four chapters of this dissertation will present detailed description and findings of the research topic. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH ISSUES The previous chapter provided an overview of the dissertation and listed the objective, issues, and significance of the research topic. This chapter reviews the relevant literature and comprises of six sections. The review starts with a discussion on early approaches to understanding a firms performance and its competitive advantage. This is followed by the development of a theoretical framework and a discussion on contemporary approaches to competitive advantage. Next there is a discussion on supply chain management, followed by an overview of advanced supply chain management systems. The last two sections conclude with a discussion on gaps in the literature, identification of areas for further research, and the summary. 2.1 Early approaches to understanding a firms performance and competitive advantage One of the earliest (chronologically) approaches to competitive advantage is the microeconomic approach, or the idea of perfect competition (Walras, 1874, 1969). In perfect competition products are homogenous, consumers and producers have perfect information, prices will reach equilibrium, and as a result profits are negligible or low in the long run. However, according to Gill (1991), such a perfect economy is an abstraction, because there are monopolies, oligopolies, and perfect competition. Furthermore, there are also two kinds of competition: spatial and monopolistic. Spatial differentiation pertains to oligopolistic competition (Hotelling, 1929), and it meets consumers different tastes. Monopolistic competition assumes that small firms produce a variety of differentiated products (Chamberlin, 1933; in Gill, 1991). All these situations allow for profit maximization and higher profits (Gill, 1991). The industrial organization (IO) approach takes a richer approach to understanding a firms successful performance. IO differs from the microeconomic approach by introducing variables that explain real-world economic behavior. In IO, there are two competing hypothesis that lead to higher profits and success market power and a firms efficiency (Scherer, 1990; Tirole, 1988). Nevertheless, the IO approach assumes that markets and firms will reach equilibrium, and in equilibrium profits differences will not exist (Tirole, 1988). Both the microeconomic approach and the industrial organization approach assume that all firms would reach equilibrium and have equal profit and success. However, we know from a daily look at many firms performance on the stock market that profit and performance vary across firms, even when they are in the same business. Eaton and Lipsey (1978) have verified that differences in performance and profit exist between firms. 2.2 Contemporary approaches to achieving competitive advantage 2.2.1 Framework to understanding a firms performance One of the first researchers to propose a theoretical framework for understanding a firms performance is Porter (1980). He takes a strategic and analytical approach to understanding competitive strategy, and argued that, â€Å"Every firm competing in an industry has a competitive strategy, whether explicit or implicit† (Porter, 1980, p. xiii). He proposes a framework for analyzing industries and competitors and describes three generic strategies cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. He postulates that if a firm is able to do well in any of these strategies, it will gain competitive advantage. Porters concept is illustrated in 2-1. Generic Competitive Strategies†¢Overall cost leadership†¢Differentiation†¢FocusCompetitive Advantageof a Firm †¢ Cost leadership requires efficient-scale facilities, pursuit of cost reductions, and cost minimization in all areas of the firm. This will give more profit. †¢ Differentiation of product or service requires industry-wide differentiation, including design and brand image, customer service, and distribution or dealer network. Product or service differentiation will help increase customer loyalty and ensure repurchase. †¢ Focus on markets, buyers, or product lines can maximize profits. The framework, in 2-1, shows that the right strategies can provide competitive advantage. Porter (1985) also argues that competitive advantage come from the many discrete activities a firm performs in designing, producing, marketing, delivering, and supporting its product. Each of these activities contributes to a firms relative cost position and creates a basis for differentiation. This is the value chain, and a firm has to disaggregate its strategically relevant activities in order to understand the behavior of costs and the existing and potential sources of differentiation. A firm gains competitive advantage by performing these strategically important activities cheaper or better than its competitors (Porter, 1985), and this can lead to a higher profit margin. The value chain concept is illustrated in 2-2. Profit Margin Outbound Logistics Manufacturing Operations, and other Internal Processes Inbound Logistics Procurement Human Resource Management Technology Development Firm Infrastructure and Platform Services Customer Service Marketing and Sales Primary Activities Support Activities Supply Chain Approach Strategic Planning Approach Marketing Capabilities Approach The Value Chain and Theoretical Framework to Achieve Competitive Advantage Adapted from Porter (1985) and this literature review. Note 1: Key approaches to competitive advantage are highlighted with underlined Characters Note 2: The definition of supply chain implies all activities necessary to deliver a product (Hakanson, 1999). Therefore sales, marketing, and customer service activities can be construed as part of the supply chain approach shown in the . In this study, sales and marketing processes, such as demand management, order processing, and customer relationship management are included in the internal processes shown in the and in the supply chain literature review. However, sales and marketing activity, such as sales calls, advertising, product positioning, market research, and some post delivery support processes are excluded from supply chain activity. This is consistent with the approach taken by the Supply Chain Council and the SCOR (Supply Chain Operational Reference) model it uses to measure supply chain activity (Supply Chain Council, 2001). 2.2.2 Summary of contemporary approaches to competitive advantage Porters approach presents new thinking to competitive advantage (Rumelt, Schendel, and Teece, 1991) and has influenced other approaches to creating competitive advantage. Many of the other approaches to competitive advantage are summarized in Table 2-1. From the table, it can be seen that all the approaches to increasing competitive advantage, except for the early microeconomic and industrial organization approaches, fit the theoretical framework in 2-2. However, all these approaches to competitive advantage are complementary and not alternatives or conflicting theories they basically propose various segments of the theoretical framework shown in 2-2. The various approaches are discussed very briefly below, but the last approach (in Table 2-1), Supply Chain Management, is discussed in greater detail. 2.2.3 The strategic planning approach In essence, Porters (1980, 1985) approaches are strategic planning approaches, i.e. a firms competitive advantage can be planned for. This includes planning for differentiation in the value chain, low cost leadership, and focus. Nations can also be competitive (Porter, 1990). Nations need four conditions to gain competitive advantage and be successful. The four conditions are: factor conditions (education and skill levels), demand conditions (or market size), related and supporting industries, and company strategy and rivalry (Porter, 1990). Strategy is â€Å"lucky foresight†¦Strategy is always the product of a complex and unexpected interplay between ideas, information, personalities, and desire† according to Hamel (1998). What this implies is that one does not settle for obvious solutions and strategies but should look at alternatives, challenge assumptions, and look at new ways of delivering superior customer value and firm performance. Table 2-1 Summary of early and contemporary approaches to competitive advantage Approach Proponent Main idea/postulate Comments Microeconomic Walras (1874, 1984) Perfect competition results in negligible profits Ideas ignore monopolies, oligopolies, and product differentiation. Profit does vary across firms according to Eaton and Lipsey (1978). Industrial Organization Scherer (1990), Tirole (1988) Success comes from market power and a firms efficiency. All proponents agree that in the long term there will be industry equilibrium and little profit. Porter (1980) Porter (1985) Provides a framework for achieving competitive advantage. Every firm has a generic competitive strategy in cost leadership, market focus, or differentiation. The value chain disaggregates a firm into its strategically relevant activities. A firm gains competitive advantage by performing these important activities better than its competitors. Challenges the stereotype approach of perfect competition and industry equilibrium. Provides a prescriptive approach to achieve competitive advantage, but the ideas and solutions are essentially conceptual. Hamel (1998) Strategy is the product of a complex and unexpected interplay between ideas, information, personalities, and desire. A firm has to seek alternatives and new ways of delivering superior customer value and firm performance. The Strategic Approach and its Variations Value Chain Approach Strategic Approach Resource Based Approach Wernerfelt (1984), Barney (1991), Rumelt, Schendel, and Teece (1991). A firm has to identify specific, or rare, resources that lead to higher profits. Long-term superior performance comes from building product market positions that effectively utilize and maintain these resources. Examples of such resources include customer loyalty, and technological leads. If the resources are unique and difficult to duplicate, then the firm achieves competitive advantage. Table 2-1 (Continued) Summary of early and contemporary approaches to competitive advantage Approach Proponent Main idea/postulate Comments Market Strategy Marketing Capabilities Approach Resource-Advantage Theory Product Differentiation Day (1994,1999), Cool and Dierickx (1989), Aaker (1989), Caves and Ghemawat (1986). Also, Buzzell an Critical Success Factors in Supply Chain Management Critical Success Factors in Supply Chain Management ABSTRACT In todays turbulent economic environment, firms are striving for ways to achieve competitive advantage. One of the approaches is to manage the entire supply chain to reduce costs and improve performance to create competitive advantage and business success. This dissertation explores and investigates how high technology firms use supply chain management to gain competitive advantage and increase business success. The research objective is to determine the critical success factors in supply chain management at high technology companies. This dissertation provides a theoretical framework to understand a firms performance and argues that supply chain management will help a firm to be competitive and successful. To this end, the critical success factors that make a company more competitive are identified. The research design is based on the established and recommended procedures of multiple case study research methodology; and this methodology is used to gather data from five companies in California, USA. The analysis is based primarily on cross-case analysis for the purpose of theoretical generalization about the research issues. The results identify two clusters of company behavior and characteristics, specifically traditional ‘old style manufacturing companies and progressive manufacturing companies. Each cluster of company behaves differently. At the traditional manufacturing companies, the selection of critical supply chain management factors is internally focused on factors that are manufacturing and quality focused, while at the progressive manufacturing companies the selection of critical supply chain management factors is externally focused on factors that are directed to customers and information systems. There are differences between critical supply chain management factors at high technology companies and benchmark (or commodity) companies that were selected in this study. The benchmark companies select supply chain management factors that focus on customer services and quality. This approach is, possibly, due to the fact that the benchmark companies deal in commodity type products and hence they have to focus on differentiating themselves through strong customer services and quality products. Additionally, with the help of supply chain metrics, financial performance data, and understanding the various companies, it is possible to determine which critical supply chain factors best can contribute to business performance. At the case study companies, an external focus on supply chain management factors such as a strong focus on customer relationship and management, gives better business results. Finally, this study has proposed a novel and new approach to improving customer satisfaction by using QFD methodology to identify performance gaps (and opportunities) from the customers viewpoint in supply chain management. If the companies wish to increase customer satisfaction, they have to use the QFD methodology to identify critical supply chain factors. The reason is primarily because performance gaps derived from customer needs emphasize what the customer wants and that is different from the internal perceptions of a companys managers. The initiatives that provide the greatest opportunity have been identified in this analysis. Overall, these findings can be used by high technology firms to select supply chain strategies that will lead to sustainable competitive advantage and hence improve their brand and business performance. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The genesis of this dissertation was a request from a high technology company to investigate the companys supply chain system and identify factors affecting the successful implementation of supply chain management. This chapter serves as an introduction to the dissertation. It comprises eight sections, which cover the background to the research, objective of the research and the research questions, justification and significance of the research, a brief description of the methodology, an outline of the structure of the study, key definitions, delimitations of this research, and the chapters conclusion. 1.1 Background A firms strategies, innovations, and well-planned activities will lead to sustainable competitive advantage and hence improve its brand and business performance. As firms strive for ways to achieve competitive advantage, they are looking for new ideas and solutions. This dissertation addresses the topic of competitive advantage, reviews how firms attempt to achieve it, and focuses on one aspect of competitive advantage managing the supply chain to increase competitive advantage and business success. The early understanding of competitive advantage is based on Leon Walras (1874, 1984) theory of perfect competition. In perfect competition products are homogenous, consumers and producers have perfect information, prices will reach equilibrium, and as a result profits are zero in the long run. A later approach is the Industrial Organization approach (Tirole, 1988), which argues that success comes from market power and a firms efficiency. However, the proponents of this approach agree that in the long term there would be industry equilibrium and little profit. One of the first researchers to propose a theoretical framework for understanding a firms performance is Michael Porter (1980). He takes a strategic and analytical approach to understanding competitive strategy, and argues that, â€Å"Every firm competing in an industry has a competitive strategy, whether explicit or implicit.† Porter asserts that, except for microeconomic theory, the strategy field and literature had offered few analytical techniques for gaining this understanding. Porter (1980) argues that with the right approach it is possible to break away from the economic equilibrium situation and achieve superior performance. Therefore he proposes a framework for analyzing industries and competitors and describes three generic strategies cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. He postulates that to be successful, the firm has to do well in one or more of these strategies. Porters (1980) ideas and proposals on achieving competitive advantage have influenced many other researchers to propose complementary theories on achieving competitive advantage. All the theories proposed by researchers are supported with examples of winning strategies implemented at renowned companies. The theories include an emphasis on planning (Porter, 1980, 1985), strategic approach (Hamel and Prahalad, 1990, 1998; Porter, 1985, 1990, 1991), marketing strategies (Day, 1994, 1999), value chain management (Porter, 1985), and supply chain management (Christopher, 1998; Poirier, 1999; Tyndall et al., 1998). A theory that has gained momentum in the last few years is the concept of supply chain management. In recent years, there have been numerous advances and developments in supply chain techniques and management. One of the reasons is that as trade barriers drop and markets open, competition has become more intense hence companies need to be more competitive and cost effective. An initiative to help achieve this is a supply chain management program. Supply chain management is the management of upstream and downstream activities, resources, and relationships with suppliers and customers, which is required to deliver products or services. In theory, if this is done well it will lead to competitive advantage through differentiation and lower costs as suggested by Porter (1980). Moreover, some researchers claim that effective supply chain management can reduce costs by several percentage points of revenue (Boyson, et. al, 1999). Furthermore, there has been little verification or research d one on measuring competitive advantage gained through supply chain management. Supply chain management is not a static concept or solution. Instead, new advances and techniques for supply chain management continue to mushroom. This tremendous growth in new ideas and processes is starting to influence and change the business processes and models of companies. Hence companies have many choices in selecting programs in supply chain management. In making their choices, companies need to plan for effective supply chain management, in order to gain competitive advantage. However, to ensure that effective supply chain management can provide business success, this study must determine the critical success factors in supply chain management that can provide competitive advantage. Furthermore, these critical success factors must be identified and conveyed to senior management in firms that want to have an effective supply chain management program. 1.2 Objective of this research The objective of this dissertation is to explore and investigate how firms scope, design, and implement supply chain management in order to gain competitive advantage. Most importantly, this dissertation endeavors to determine the critical success factors in supply chain management that can provide competitive advantage. It also explores and investigates the advances and new ideas in supply chain management and examines how firms scope, design, and implement supply chain management in order to gain competitive advantage. The genesis of this dissertation was a request from a high technology company to investigate the companys supply chain system and propose improvements to help make it more competitive. The company is headquartered in California USA, and this author works for one of the companys business unit as General Manager for Distribution. The request was to investigate the companys supply chain management system and to propose improvements that would make it more competitive This dissertation provides a theoretical framework to understand a firms performance and argues that supply chain management is an approach that will help a firm to be competitive and successful. Furthermore, in using supply chain management, firms are faced with choices on what supply chain techniques and developments to adopt for their businesses. This dissertation wil review the choices that high technology companies have today, and will make recommendations to select the best choices, or critical success factors, based on business and customer needs. Therefore, the research objective is to: Determine the critical success factors in supply chain management at high technology companies. In fulfilling this objective, this dissertation also addresses the following research issues: 1. Are there differences between critical supply chain management factors at various high technology companies? 2. Are there differences between critical supply chain management factors at high technology companies and non high technology (or benchmark commodity) companies? 3. Will a focus on external supply chain management factors give better business results? 4. Are perceived critical gaps (and opportunities) in performance derived from traditional methodology similar to those deployed from customer needs? In this study, the critical success factors to make a company more competitive are identified. To ensure a robust analysis and conclusion, the expectations and perceptions of respondents, involved in this study, are taken into consideration as well as customer requirements. 1.3 Significance of the research There are many theories and empirical studies on competitive advantage. However, the empirical studies, using mathematical models, tend to be limited in scope (Porter, 1991; Buzzel and Gale, 1990), and do not include supply chain management parameters. While there has been much research on activities that can provide competitive advantage, there is little knowledge on the process of selection and impact of supply chain management on the competitive position and business performance of a high technology firm. Firms need to understand how supply chain management can help them achieve competitive advantage. Furthermore, there is an expectation that high technology companies will use leading edge technology and invest heavily in supply chain management. This dissertation makes the following contributions: 1. Fulfils a request from a high technology company: The author of this study works for a high technology company, head-quartered in California USA, and was requested to investigate the companys (business unit) supply chain system and propose improvements to help make it more competitive. 2. Identifies the critical success factors in supply chain management from a high technology companys viewpoint. Often when reviewing critical success factors, only the perception of respondents is taken into account. However, in this analysis both the perceptions and expectations of respondents are taken into consideration. Such an analysis will be more robust and will allow performance gaps to be analyzed and understood. 3. Identifies the critical success factors in supply chain management from customers of high technology companies. To enhance the relevance of the conclusions, customer requirements are also taken into consideration by using the quality function deployment (QFD) methodology and these are compared to the high technology companies performance gaps. Such an analysis will allow performance gaps to be analyzed and understood from the viewpoint of customers of high technology companies. 4. Contributes to the understanding of how high technology companies scope, design, and develop their supply chain management system. 1.4 Research Methodology This study employs the qualitative research process using multiple case studies. There are several reasons for this: Since the focus of this research is on high technology companies operating in California, USA, there is a concern that there will be a small number of companies willing to participate in a large (sample size) quantitative survey. Furthermore face-to-face meetings with respondents can help provide understanding and information on several qualitative areas, such as: reasons for implementing specific supply chain factors (or strategies), customer needs data, and discussions and feedback on the questionnaire. Also, cases can be viewed and studied alone and across cases to provide comparison and contrast and richer details and insights regarding the research issues (Eisenhardt 1989; Stake 1994; Yin 1994). Hence this research will be done via a multiple case study approach using structured interviews with a questionnaire (Yin, 1994).5 1.5 Structure of the dissertation In addition to this introductory chapter, this dissertation consists of four chapters ( 1.1). Chapter 2 reviews the relevant literature, addresses the disciplines under investigation, and provides an overview of competitive advantage. The chapter then provides a detailed review of the current literature and practices of supply chain management. With that as the background, chapter 2 continues into identifying gaps in the literature and provides the rationale for selecting the research topic and issues. Chapter 5Conclusion and opportunities for further researchChapter 1IntroductionChapter 3Research methodologyChapter 2Literature review and research issuesChapter 4Data analysis and interpretationsChapter interpretations Chapter 3 discusses the research methodology used for this study and it includes: the justification of the research methodology, a discussion on preparation of the questionnaire and the data gathering process, the process used for data analysis and determining gaps, the process used to generate recommendations from the data, and concludes with a discussion on the limitations of case study research. Chapter 4 summarizes the data collected from the selected companies and respondents and aims to interpret the data in relation to the research objective. Each of the four research issues is analyzed, interpreted, and the detailed findings are presented. The chapter concludes with a summary of the research findings. Chapter 5 provides a summary of the findings and conclusions of the research objective and issues, discusses the contribution of the research findings to the literature and theory, reviews the implications of the findings, discusses the limitations of the research, and concludes with suggested direction for future research. 1.6 Key definitions Definitions adopted by researchers are often not uniform; hence key terms are defined to establish positions taken for this dissertation (Perry 1998). This will ensure that subsequent research, undertaken at a later stage, will better measure and compare what this dissertation has set out to do. †¢ Logistics: The management and movement of product and services, including storage and warehousing, and their transport via air, land, and water (Coyle, Bardi, and Langley, 1988). †¢ Supply chain: Consists of all inter-linked resources and activities needed to create and deliver products and services to customers (Hakanson, 1999). †¢ Supply chain management: This includes managing supply and demand, sourcing raw materials and parts, manufacturing and assembly, distribution across all channels, and delivery to the customer (Supply Chain Council, 2001). †¢ Supply chain agility or agile supply chain: An agile supply chain is one that is flexible and has a business-wide capability that embraces organizational structures, information systems, and logistics processes. (Christopher, 2000) †¢ Critical success factors (CSF): Critical success factors are those few things that must go well to ensure success for a manager or organization, and therefore may represent those managerial or enterprise areas that must be given continual attention. CSFs include issues vital to an organizations current operating activities and to its future success (Boynton and Zmud, 1984). †¢ Customer relationship management (CRM): CRM is the management of technology, processes, information, and people in order to maximize each customer contact by obtaining a 360-degree view of the customer (Galbreath and Rogers, 1999). †¢ Performance gap: This is a gap between the perceived performance and the expected importance of a factor (in this dissertation it is a supply chain factor). The performance gap provides an indication as to whether executives and managers are successful in translating their vision to their employees and hence such perception may give an indication regarding the degree of employees alignment with the organizations vision. If a factor is critical and has a negative value of factor alignment (perceived performance is less than the expectation), then the organization may have a potential problem with that factor. Information on factor alignment allows executives to develop a strategy to overcome the challenges associated with the gaps between importance and performance. (Martilla and James, 1977). †¢ Quality Function Deployment (QFD): QFD is a comprehensive quality tool that can be used to uncover customers spoken and unspoken needs, and convert these needs to product or service design targets and processes (Akao, 1990). 1.7 Delimitation There are several delimitations in this dissertation. †¢ The theoretical model derived from this dissertation is only applicable to the high technology companies. †¢ The dissertation is focused on companies operating geographically in California, United States of America, where there is a concentration of high technology companies. †¢ This dissertation is an exploratory research and will have to be tested for generalizability in later, more extensive, quantitative research (Perry, 1998). †¢ There is no scientific basis for choosing the number of cases in this dissertation. The number selected is based on the experiences and recommendations of the research and academic community (Eisenhardt, 1989; Perry, 1998). 1.8 Conclusion This chapter provides an overview of the dissertation. The aim, objectives, and justification of the research topic were discussed. The dissertation is an investigation on the impact of a supply chain management system on the competitive position of high technology business firms. It explores and investigates new ideas in supply chain management and examines how high technology firms manage and improve their supply chain management system. Furthermore, this dissertation will analyze the gaps and opportunities for supply chain management in high technology companies and give a set of recommendations. The methodology was briefly described, key definitions were explained, delimitations of this research were addressed, and the structure of the dissertation was outlined. With all the important areas of the research briefly introduced in this chapter, the following four chapters of this dissertation will present detailed description and findings of the research topic. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH ISSUES The previous chapter provided an overview of the dissertation and listed the objective, issues, and significance of the research topic. This chapter reviews the relevant literature and comprises of six sections. The review starts with a discussion on early approaches to understanding a firms performance and its competitive advantage. This is followed by the development of a theoretical framework and a discussion on contemporary approaches to competitive advantage. Next there is a discussion on supply chain management, followed by an overview of advanced supply chain management systems. The last two sections conclude with a discussion on gaps in the literature, identification of areas for further research, and the summary. 2.1 Early approaches to understanding a firms performance and competitive advantage One of the earliest (chronologically) approaches to competitive advantage is the microeconomic approach, or the idea of perfect competition (Walras, 1874, 1969). In perfect competition products are homogenous, consumers and producers have perfect information, prices will reach equilibrium, and as a result profits are negligible or low in the long run. However, according to Gill (1991), such a perfect economy is an abstraction, because there are monopolies, oligopolies, and perfect competition. Furthermore, there are also two kinds of competition: spatial and monopolistic. Spatial differentiation pertains to oligopolistic competition (Hotelling, 1929), and it meets consumers different tastes. Monopolistic competition assumes that small firms produce a variety of differentiated products (Chamberlin, 1933; in Gill, 1991). All these situations allow for profit maximization and higher profits (Gill, 1991). The industrial organization (IO) approach takes a richer approach to understanding a firms successful performance. IO differs from the microeconomic approach by introducing variables that explain real-world economic behavior. In IO, there are two competing hypothesis that lead to higher profits and success market power and a firms efficiency (Scherer, 1990; Tirole, 1988). Nevertheless, the IO approach assumes that markets and firms will reach equilibrium, and in equilibrium profits differences will not exist (Tirole, 1988). Both the microeconomic approach and the industrial organization approach assume that all firms would reach equilibrium and have equal profit and success. However, we know from a daily look at many firms performance on the stock market that profit and performance vary across firms, even when they are in the same business. Eaton and Lipsey (1978) have verified that differences in performance and profit exist between firms. 2.2 Contemporary approaches to achieving competitive advantage 2.2.1 Framework to understanding a firms performance One of the first researchers to propose a theoretical framework for understanding a firms performance is Porter (1980). He takes a strategic and analytical approach to understanding competitive strategy, and argued that, â€Å"Every firm competing in an industry has a competitive strategy, whether explicit or implicit† (Porter, 1980, p. xiii). He proposes a framework for analyzing industries and competitors and describes three generic strategies cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. He postulates that if a firm is able to do well in any of these strategies, it will gain competitive advantage. Porters concept is illustrated in 2-1. Generic Competitive Strategies†¢Overall cost leadership†¢Differentiation†¢FocusCompetitive Advantageof a Firm †¢ Cost leadership requires efficient-scale facilities, pursuit of cost reductions, and cost minimization in all areas of the firm. This will give more profit. †¢ Differentiation of product or service requires industry-wide differentiation, including design and brand image, customer service, and distribution or dealer network. Product or service differentiation will help increase customer loyalty and ensure repurchase. †¢ Focus on markets, buyers, or product lines can maximize profits. The framework, in 2-1, shows that the right strategies can provide competitive advantage. Porter (1985) also argues that competitive advantage come from the many discrete activities a firm performs in designing, producing, marketing, delivering, and supporting its product. Each of these activities contributes to a firms relative cost position and creates a basis for differentiation. This is the value chain, and a firm has to disaggregate its strategically relevant activities in order to understand the behavior of costs and the existing and potential sources of differentiation. A firm gains competitive advantage by performing these strategically important activities cheaper or better than its competitors (Porter, 1985), and this can lead to a higher profit margin. The value chain concept is illustrated in 2-2. Profit Margin Outbound Logistics Manufacturing Operations, and other Internal Processes Inbound Logistics Procurement Human Resource Management Technology Development Firm Infrastructure and Platform Services Customer Service Marketing and Sales Primary Activities Support Activities Supply Chain Approach Strategic Planning Approach Marketing Capabilities Approach The Value Chain and Theoretical Framework to Achieve Competitive Advantage Adapted from Porter (1985) and this literature review. Note 1: Key approaches to competitive advantage are highlighted with underlined Characters Note 2: The definition of supply chain implies all activities necessary to deliver a product (Hakanson, 1999). Therefore sales, marketing, and customer service activities can be construed as part of the supply chain approach shown in the . In this study, sales and marketing processes, such as demand management, order processing, and customer relationship management are included in the internal processes shown in the and in the supply chain literature review. However, sales and marketing activity, such as sales calls, advertising, product positioning, market research, and some post delivery support processes are excluded from supply chain activity. This is consistent with the approach taken by the Supply Chain Council and the SCOR (Supply Chain Operational Reference) model it uses to measure supply chain activity (Supply Chain Council, 2001). 2.2.2 Summary of contemporary approaches to competitive advantage Porters approach presents new thinking to competitive advantage (Rumelt, Schendel, and Teece, 1991) and has influenced other approaches to creating competitive advantage. Many of the other approaches to competitive advantage are summarized in Table 2-1. From the table, it can be seen that all the approaches to increasing competitive advantage, except for the early microeconomic and industrial organization approaches, fit the theoretical framework in 2-2. However, all these approaches to competitive advantage are complementary and not alternatives or conflicting theories they basically propose various segments of the theoretical framework shown in 2-2. The various approaches are discussed very briefly below, but the last approach (in Table 2-1), Supply Chain Management, is discussed in greater detail. 2.2.3 The strategic planning approach In essence, Porters (1980, 1985) approaches are strategic planning approaches, i.e. a firms competitive advantage can be planned for. This includes planning for differentiation in the value chain, low cost leadership, and focus. Nations can also be competitive (Porter, 1990). Nations need four conditions to gain competitive advantage and be successful. The four conditions are: factor conditions (education and skill levels), demand conditions (or market size), related and supporting industries, and company strategy and rivalry (Porter, 1990). Strategy is â€Å"lucky foresight†¦Strategy is always the product of a complex and unexpected interplay between ideas, information, personalities, and desire† according to Hamel (1998). What this implies is that one does not settle for obvious solutions and strategies but should look at alternatives, challenge assumptions, and look at new ways of delivering superior customer value and firm performance. Table 2-1 Summary of early and contemporary approaches to competitive advantage Approach Proponent Main idea/postulate Comments Microeconomic Walras (1874, 1984) Perfect competition results in negligible profits Ideas ignore monopolies, oligopolies, and product differentiation. Profit does vary across firms according to Eaton and Lipsey (1978). Industrial Organization Scherer (1990), Tirole (1988) Success comes from market power and a firms efficiency. All proponents agree that in the long term there will be industry equilibrium and little profit. Porter (1980) Porter (1985) Provides a framework for achieving competitive advantage. Every firm has a generic competitive strategy in cost leadership, market focus, or differentiation. The value chain disaggregates a firm into its strategically relevant activities. A firm gains competitive advantage by performing these important activities better than its competitors. Challenges the stereotype approach of perfect competition and industry equilibrium. Provides a prescriptive approach to achieve competitive advantage, but the ideas and solutions are essentially conceptual. Hamel (1998) Strategy is the product of a complex and unexpected interplay between ideas, information, personalities, and desire. A firm has to seek alternatives and new ways of delivering superior customer value and firm performance. The Strategic Approach and its Variations Value Chain Approach Strategic Approach Resource Based Approach Wernerfelt (1984), Barney (1991), Rumelt, Schendel, and Teece (1991). A firm has to identify specific, or rare, resources that lead to higher profits. Long-term superior performance comes from building product market positions that effectively utilize and maintain these resources. Examples of such resources include customer loyalty, and technological leads. If the resources are unique and difficult to duplicate, then the firm achieves competitive advantage. Table 2-1 (Continued) Summary of early and contemporary approaches to competitive advantage Approach Proponent Main idea/postulate Comments Market Strategy Marketing Capabilities Approach Resource-Advantage Theory Product Differentiation Day (1994,1999), Cool and Dierickx (1989), Aaker (1989), Caves and Ghemawat (1986). Also, Buzzell an