Monday, May 11, 2020

The Tragedy Of Louis And Louis - 1819 Words

It had been three days since the papers released the official statement, and Louis phone had barely stopped vibrating, journalists were barricaded outside of his house, hoping to catch a glimpse of the heartbroken singer, but Louis was anything but. The past eighteen months had been a nightmare, the lies and the deception were tearing Louis apart, his only solace was the fact that he knew it wouldn t last forever, the truth would come out in the end and Louis would be spared from the bullshit, eventually. Apart from a Skype meeting with his manager and publicist, he had been holed up in his house, radio silent, eating junk food and completely ignoring the mess the admission had left behind in its wake. Louis had become quite the†¦show more content†¦the initial. It was Harry. The same Harry who he hadn t spoken to in over a year, and the same Harry who had broken his heart. __________________________________________________________________ Flashback - December 2015 The boys had just performed their last show together on The X Factor before their hiatus was due to start and they were by all accounts totally exhausted. An array of cheers, hugs, and high-fives awaited them as they bounded off the stage, tears in their eyes, feeling quite emotional at the fact it would be a long time they would be together in that way again. After the congratulations and farewells had ended, Louis was in his dressing room getting changed into something that was a little less sweaty and a bit more comfortable when there was a knock at the door, accompanied by a soft, unmistakable voice calling out for him, it was Harry. Come in, just changing, Louis announced to the younger boy and smiled as he entered the room. Harry had changed his clothes since they d left the stage and instead of the bright, floral ensemble he was wearing previously, he now wore a loose pair of jogging bottoms, an unusually plain white shirt and his long hair was scraped back into a lazy bun. Louis eyes met with Harry s as he walked towards him with his arms outstretched. The two boys embraced one another, Louis arms were sliding around the small of Harry sShow MoreRelatedThe Tragedy Of Saint Louis1766 Words   |  8 Pages It seemed just like yesterday, back in the glory days. Back then, nearly two decades ago, life in the Saint Louis area was perfect. Unlike today where Saint Louis is known for its crime and violence, years ago conditions were different, the talk of the town used to be about the Cardinals baseball team, they were once the pride and joy of the city. Constantly in the news after win after win. 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We had always hoped to visit the Gateway to the West one day, but we never imagined ever living here permanently. This move could not have happened at a more perfect time either, with St. Louis playing host to the World’s Fair in a matter of years, there is plenty of work to be done and numerous job options at any time. The potential for work has driven my family to the ends of the EarthRead MoreThe Play Of Louis De Rougemont1373 Words   |  6 PagesAmazing Adventures of Louis De Rougemont (As told by Himself.) Donald Margulies is the playwright of this play. Arthur Grothe directed the show that I saw and where the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire performed it. The play took place at the Riverside Theater in Haas Fine Arts Center. The play would be considered an action drama, one that was filled with almost every emotion, but the main genre would be action. Overall, the major themes of this play were the stories of Louis De Rougemont, the incredibleRead MoreThe Worst Royals Were Born1337 Words   |  6 Pages23, 1754, King Louis Auguste de France was born in the Palace of Versailles. He was the third son of Louis, Grand Dauphin, and Duchess Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria. At a young age, Louis was forced to take on responsibility. As a shy child, this was not the best decision for his guardia ns to make. Louis parents paid very little attention to him, and instead to his older brother, soon to be king, Louis Duc de Bourgogne. ( Louis XVI Biography) In the 60’s of the 18th century, Louis’ life would turn

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Why is there unequal division of household labour in most of the society Free Essays

string(76) " of housework as reflecting resources men and women bring to relationships\." In this article, we address the division of household labour by examining its general situation and exploring different approaches used by different sociologist to account for it. The five approaches are namely exchange theory, resource theory, Marxist feminist theory, radical feminist theory and social construction theory will be discussed. With the evidence of previous researches, the situation of division of household labour is explored and evaluated in terms of its degree of gender inequality as manifested. We will write a custom essay sample on Why is there unequal division of household labour in most of the society? or any similar topic only for you Order Now In the second part, the situation is being accounted by those five approaches so as to determine whether the situation can be altered. Household labour can be defined in a variety of ways, however, in this article, we acquire those employed by Shelton (1996), that is defined as unpaid work done to maintain family member and/ or a home, which, emotion work and other â€Å"invisible† types of work are typically excluded. Meanwhile, it is a job described as monotonous, fragmented, with low status not being treated as a â€Å"real† work, bring no financial remuneration, isolated with inherent time limits, and often received no recognition Oakley (Morris 1990:81). Since mid 1960s, researches on comparing the division of household labour between men and women has been mounting, it is not only due to the great impact of household labour on the family life of contemporary married couple, but also due to its implication of gender equality in the society to certain extend. In this article, we address this issue by examining its general situation and exploring different approaches used by different sociologist to account for it. Through this process, it is hoping to find out the most comprehensive approach so as to determine whether the situation can be altered. A great amount of researches on the division of household labour have evidenced that women share the majority of the housework with especially the responsibility for regular, routine repetitive and childcare related housework. While for men, they are more likely to perform non-routine tasks. For instance, from Chu’s research on the household distribution between women and men in Hong Kong (1997) revealed that â€Å"wife alone† occupies the largest share in taking up the actual responsibility of all the regular housework such as foodstuff buying, meal making, dish washing and house cleaning. etc.. Whereas, husband’s involvement is limited on those irregular tasks such as car washing, bill recording and maintaining and repairing household apparatus. He also find that more than one quarter of the 230 interviewed households rely entirely on wives alone to do eight items of housework. One may doubt the situation in western countries. Would the westernized value system decrease the discrepancy in the household division of labour? This is clarified by numerous researches done in UK and US recently, which suggest that the â€Å"traditional allocation of domestic work to the woman hold firm† (Morris, 1990:86). Martin and Roberts echoed with the above conclusion by reporting that 73 percent of wives and 72 percent of husbands said that most of the wife did most or all of the housework. Though, the percent decrease when the wife is in employment, yet, majority said that wife did majority of the housework. Abbott Wallace, 1997). From all these findings, we can conclude that the most notable characteristic of the current division of household labour is that whether employed or not, women continue to do the majority of housework. This pattern should never be ignored since as pointed out by several sociologists that the women’s rare continuous full-time careers or small labour-market participation are greatly affected by their family responsibilities especially the existence of dependent children (Abbott Wallace, 1997). The family responsibilities born by women despite their employment status create a dual role for them and the effects have been conceptualized by Morris in terms of â€Å"role strain†. She proposed that â€Å"it is manifest as a ‘wide’, distracting and sometimes conflicting array of role obligations† (1990:94) where the source of strain comes from the accumulation of roles and their contradictory, incompatible role expectations or from the competing demanding for time and attention. This result in overload of total demands on time and energy for women in general and may turn employment from a mean of offering positive social and psychological rewards and a major contributing factor to women’s increased liberation and independence (Pearson, 1990), to a stress for women. The tension for women between career and family is therefore is due to the unequal household distribution in the family on one hand. The inequality in power, status and wealth between men and women on the other hand is another reflection from the household distribution. However, what contribute to this pattern of household labour division? In the following, we explore five approaches in accounting this situation and concluding if it is possible for the unequal situation to be altered. The five approaches are namely exchange theory, resource theory, Marxist feminist theory, radical feminist theory and social construction theory. â€Å"Exchange theory with a view to examining family cohesion from the perspective of reciprocity and the exchange of rights and duties between husband and wife† (Morris, 1990:82). It sees marital satisfaction such as companionship, empathy and affection was attained from the instrumental exchange between economic provision and domestic labour from husband and wife respectively. From this approach, we can get inference that men spend more time in paid work while women spend more time in domestic work as they are naturally assigned to. Therefore, it fails to take account of differential power within marriage and of social status outside the marriage. That is it cannot explain why there is such exchange pattern, why man as a breadwinner and women as a housekeeper? Resource theory, an alternative approach may provide some explanation for it. It is proposed by Blood and Wolfe in 1959 (see Morris 1990) who applied the idea of differential control of valued resources and elaborated its application to the organization of household labour. This approach sees the division of housework as reflecting resources men and women bring to relationships. You read "Why is there unequal division of household labour in most of the society?" in category "Papers" The possible critical resources proposed are the educational attainment, occupational prestige and the amount of earning from labour market. It formulated that the more powerful spouses do least household labour and that if the wife does most household labour it is because she wields least power. In other words, the individual with most resources can use those resources to negotiate his/her way out of housework (Brines 1993: quoted from Shelton John 1996:304). Thus this approach assumes that housework is viewed negatively by both women and men and that they are therefore motivated to reduced their share of it. So, in this approach, division of household labour is actually an indicator of power and through which, we can understand the specific negotiations and decisions arrived at by individual couples in the organization of domestic life. Blood and Wolfe continue to argue that base on cross-cultural comparison, husband’s relatively low contribution to domestic labour is not ideologically based but a result of rational resources distribution. In other words, the man has strength in the labour market and the women have time. Nonetheless, this approach have not addressed why men has more strength in the work field with higher educational attainment, higher earning and higher occupational prestige. According to above two approaches, division of household labour should be more equally shared with recent growth of married women’s employment as well as the release of many men from the rigours the occupational system by unemployment, when, women are provided with chances to gain more resources and independence. Young and Willmott (1973; Quoted from Morris, 1990) proposed that the middle classes were at the forefront of a move towards symmetricality in marriage in which the role of husband and wife will become more identical. Wong stand in the same line with Young and Willmott stated that industrialization has substantially increased employment opportunities for women and as a result, has significantly advanced their position within the family. He observed that the wife’s paid employment has contributed to much greater equality between spouses, in sharing of household duties and in decision-making (Leung, 1996). However, hitherto tasks of wage and earning and domestic labour are still largely segregated. Many researches can only give little evidence of male unemployment leading to major responsibility for domestic work, nor even to their taking an equal share. It is because most of the researches which asserted male have participated more in domestic labour are actually based on proportional sense but not absolute sense (Morris, 1990; Chu, 1997). In this sense, the proportion of man’s contribution rises with the wife’s employment is only due to her own household labour time falls rather than to his rise. This kind of â€Å"cutting back† or the kind of â€Å"role expansion† as mentioned above is not a real reappointment of household labour. The following three approaches can provide a more in depth explanation to account for such persistent pattern of unequal household division pattern between men and women. The emergence of capitalism with the related rise of mercantilism, industrialization, and a cash-based economy, eroded the position of women by shifting the centre of production form the domestic until to the public workplace. This separation not only devalued women’s labour in the home, but it also made women more economically dependent on men† (Tilly and Scott, 1978; quoted from Anderson, 1997). This view of devaluation in women’s status is clearly linked to the raise of in dustrialization and capitalism. It is claimed that industrialization make the home became separated from the place of work and gradually women became associated with the domestic sphere, while men with public sphere, earning a wage and participating in politics. Then capitalist benefited from this segregation in domestic and earning labour as â€Å"women’s domestic labour reproduce the relations of production and also contributes to the maintenance of tolerable living standards for men and may reduce political pressure for radical change†(Abbott Wallace, 1997:201). From this approach, the division of domestic labour is related to the sexual division of labour in paid employment and this is why Marxist feminists derived women’s oppression from capitalism. It is this benefit for the capitalist help keeping the division of domestic labour in a way that trapped women in the domestic sphere by decreasing women from opportunity of promotion and high earning. This view set out to analyze the situation not simply the relationship between domestic labour and the capitalist system, but also queries the nature of the relationship between paid worker and the domestic worker. Nonetheless, as Morris pointed out, once we take the feminine nature of the domestic role as our starting point then the focus of analysis need to be directed from an exploration of the relationship between capitalism, waged labour and domestic labour, to a focus on the nature of the male-female relationship (1990:83). This change of emphasis leads us to the post hold by radical feminist, which holds that the sources of women’s oppression and domination at unpaid labourers is not capitalism but patriarchy that is â€Å"a system of values that asserts and maintains man’s dominant position in society† (Morris, 1990:83). Abbott and Wallace also proposed that it is men’s control over financial resources that gives them power in marriage and makes it difficult for a wife to be independent from her husband. Radical feminist argue that patriarchy in the patriarchal mode of production existed long before the development of capitalism. Yet, the line between patriarchy and capitalism is ambiguous as they are both historically induced from industrialization, in which separation of paid and unpaid work, and development of the role of â€Å"housewife† is evoked. This in turn developed capitalism and patriarchy intertwiningly. The picture provided by capitalism and patriarchy for domestic labour distribution is not complete if we did not take social construction theory into account. It explain why the above two ideologies about the economic structure and men respectively can have a spiral effect in the society. Sociologists who regard gender as social construction (Fenstermaker et al, 1991, Lorber 1986; quoted from Shelton John, 1996) argue that housework produces both household goods and services and gender. It is pointed out that women’s time spent on housework and men’s general avoidance of it produce and transform gender. Therefore, researches find out that women and men may view their housework as expression of their gender and that women’s attempt to think of housework as nurturance and love rather than work. This social construction of gender is a product out of the two ideologies as evidenced from institutional and normative forces and the cultural message about the role of male and female. As mentioned before, capitalism and patriarchy exploited women by depriving them to get as much power and status as men. When this is widespread and progress to become a social norm which in turn rooted into people’s mind and constructed an ideology of gender, a vicious cycle may be resulted. For instance, they employers assume that motherhood is more central to women’s lives than in career and the limited job opportunities and the low pay that the women receive may actually push them into marriage and motherhood. Women are then described to be trapped into the domestic sphere in an extreme sense as early socialization in the family, schooling, presentation of women’s role in mass media and the structure mode in society all promote the unbalance share of domestic household. This approach can account for findings about the conservative gender role held by most of women even nowadays. It is found that a few women believed their husband were not doing enough and majority did not expect their husbands to share household responsibilities equally (Yogev, 1981: quoted from Morris, 1990:101). Undoubtedly, women’s right and status are increasing with more voices against gender inequality. Yet, whether the trend of more and more obligation for a married women to became a working wife or working mother can attenuate the role specialization within the conjugal setting, depends much on the how they perceive housework and how they define fairness in the household. From the five theories discussed above, we can concluded that household labour division is inevitably a manifestation of gender inequality, while exchange theory and resources theory explain the situation with the most salient phenomenon such as material and resources allocation between men and women, Marxist feminist theory, radical feminist theory and social construction theory use a relatively more thorough approach to account for it. Therefore, we can speculated that in order to breakthrough the long-drawn practice of unequal division of household labour, women should firstly be conscious that equal share of domestic household with men is a right that is reasonable for them to pursue and secondly she has to undergo the struggle induced from the rooted cultural predisposition on the role as being a women, that is a mother and a wife. Otherwise, the spiral effect caused by capitalism, patriarchy and social construction will resist the division of household labour to change. 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Thursday, April 30, 2020

The Effect Of Highspeed Trains On Society Essays -

The Effect Of Highspeed Trains On Society A major reason in favor of the construction of high-speed trains in America is to relieve airways and traffic congestion. First, delays at airports are costly. Larry Johnson, director of the Center for transportation Research at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, calculates that passengers lose more that twelve million hours each year in delays at OHare airport alone. In 1986, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airlines, delays cost five billion dollars, including two billion in extra fuel and labor cost, for the ailing airline industry. According to the FAA, relieving airport congestion will cost one hundred and seventeen billion over the next decade (Mobey 14). Transportation planners predict that freeways will suffer from unbearable gridlock over the next two decades. Their conventional wisdom maintains that the U.S. cannot build out of this congestion. The Southern California Association of Governments says that daily commute time, in the Los Angeles ar ea will double by two thousand and twenty and unbearable present conditions on the freeways will become even worse. By two thousand and twenty, drives are expected to spend Seve nty percent of their time in stop-and-go traffic, as compared to fifty six percent today. Similar predictions have been made for metro areas around the country. Yet the best alternatives that they can offer are to spend billions more on public transport that hardly anyone will use and to try to force people into carpools that do not fit the ways they actually live and work (Samuel p 1). Highway traffic is also costly. Maintaining the interstate highway system could run three trillion dollars over the next several decades (Moberg 14). Urban congestion is a hidden tax on the productivity and welfare of urban areas everywhere. In areas like Los Angeles and New York, this tax is eight billion dollars per year; nationally, about fifty six billion per year. In the next twenty years, this insidious tax is projected to nearly double (Mallinckarodt p1). Bill Fay said, Cars stuck in traffic waste more fuel and emit more pollutants than cars that are moving(Dahl 4). High occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are one of the primary tools used to reduce traffic congestion on the state highway system and improve air quality (HOV Lanes in California p1). The usual goal of HOV lane restrictions is to provide overall congestion, and emissions reduction (Mallinckdet. p 1). However, in recent years, HOV lanes effectiveness in achieving these goals has come in to question (HOV Lanes in California p1). When drivers use a highway, they do not pay the cost that they may be imposing on other drivers. Ideally, traffic should flow smoothly at the speed limit. However, as traffic increases, eventually the addition of one more vehicle will slow the flow and increase the travel time of other vehicles. At this point congestion (the negative externality) begins (Dahl p4). Sen Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, The train technology, offers great opportunities to reduce congestion in our surface and air transportation system (Clough 9). Thus building high-speed trains would aid the problem of increa sing congestion at Americas airports and on the highways. Those who argue against high-speed trains cite their negative effects to the environment. Environmental concerns have been raised with respect to high-speed rail. High-speed rails ability to materially reduce air pollution and energy consumption is dependent upon significantly reducing automobile and airline use ( Dahl p2). The FDOTs (Florida Department of Transportation) projections, anticipate so few people transferring from autos and air that any air pollution or energy gain would be inconsequential. Further, construction of major infrastructure projects consumes energy. It has been estimated that San Franciscos BART rapid transit system consumed more energy in construction than the future diversion from automobiles would save (Dahl p4). Burning fossil fuels, a process that expends approximately two times as much energy as it produces, generates most Florida electric power. Electric propulsion thus loses some of its advantage over fossil fuel propulsion (Johnson 2). Additionally F rench Champagne growers claim that high-speed rail embankments trap cold air, threatening their crops. A similar effect in Florida could make preservation of adjacent citrus crops more challenging (Dahl 1). However, students are now being educated on

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Understanding Term Spreads or Interest Rate Spreads

Understanding Term Spreads or Interest Rate Spreads Term spreads, also known as interest rate spreads, represent the difference between the long-term interest rates and short-term interest rates on debt instruments such as bonds. In order to understand the significance of term spreads, we must first understand bonds. Bonds and Term Spreads Term spreads are most often used in the comparison and evaluation of two bonds, which are fixed interest financial assets issued by governments, companies, public utilities, and other large entities. Bonds are fixed-income securities through which an investor essentially loans the bond issuer capital for a  defined period of time in exchange for a promise to repay the original note amount plus interest. Owners of these bonds become debt holders or creditors of the issuing entity as entities issue bonds as a means of raising capital or financing a special project. Individual bonds are typically issued at par, which is generally at $100 or $1,000 face value. This constitutes the bond principal. When bonds are issued, they are issued with a stated interest rate or coupon that reflects the prevailing interest rate environment at the time. This coupon reflects the interest that the issuing entity is obligated to pay to its bondholders in addition to repayment of the bond principal or the original amount borrowed at maturity. Like any loan or debt instrument, bonds are also issued with maturity dates or the date at which full repayment to the bondholder is contractually required.​​​ Market Prices and Bond Valuation There are several factors at play when it comes to the valuation of a bond. The issuing companys credit rating, for instance, can influence the market price of a bond. The higher the credit rating of the issuing entity, the less risky the investment and perhaps the more valuable the bond. Other factors that can influence a bonds market price include the maturity date or the length of time remaining until expiration. Last, and perhaps the most important factor as it relates to term spreads is the coupon rate, particularly as it compares to the general interest rate environment at the time. Interest Rates, Term Spreads, and Yield Curves Given that fixed-rate coupon bonds will pay the same percentage of the face value, the market price of the bond will vary over time depending on the current interest rate environment and how the coupon compares to newer and older issued bonds that may carry a higher or lower coupon. For instance, a bond issued in a high-interest rate environment with a high coupon will become more valuable on the market if interest rates were to fall and new bonds coupons reflect the lower interest rate environment. This is where term spreads come in as a means of comparison.   The term spread measures the difference between the coupons, or interest rates, of two bonds with different maturities or expiration dates. This difference is also known as the slope of the bond yield curve, which is a graph that plots the interest rates of bonds of equal quality, but different maturity dates at a specified point in time. Not only is the shape of the yield curve important to economists as a predictor of future interest rate changes, but its slope is also a point of interest as the greater the slope of the curve, the greater the term spread (gap between short- and long-term interest rates). If the term spread is positive, the long-term rates are higher than the short-term rates at that point in time and the spread is said to be normal. Whereas a negative term spread indicates that the yield curve is inverted and the short-term rates are higher than the long-term rates.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

5 Interesting Facts About Slavery in the Americas

5 Interesting Facts About Slavery in the Americas Slavery is a topic that never leaves the public consciousness; films, books, art, and theater have all been created about the institution. Yet, many Americans still know far too little about the transatlantic slave trade. They cant say when it began or ended or how many Africans were kidnapped and enslaved against their will. Its difficult to discuss current issues related to slavery, such as reparations, without first understanding how the slave trade left its imprint on Africa, the Americas, and the world. Millions Shipped to the Americas While it’s common knowledge that six million Jews died during the Holocaust, the number of West Africans shipped to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade from 1525 to 1866 remains a mystery to much of the public. According to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 12.5 million Africans were loaded up like human cargo and forever separated from their homes and families. Of those Africans, 10.7 million managed to live through the horrific journey known as the Middle Passage. Brazil: Slaverys Epicenter Slave traders shipped Africans all over the Americas, but far more of the enslaved population ended up in South America than any other region. Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, ​estimates that a single South American country- Brazil- received 4.86 million, or about half of all slaves who survived the trip to the New World. The United States, on the other hand, received 450,000 Africans. According to a 2016 U.S. Census Bureau report, roughly 45 million blacks live in the United States, and most of them are descendants of the Africans forced into the country during the slave trade. Slavery in the North Initially, slavery wasn’t just practiced in the Southern states of the United States, but in the North as well. Vermont stands out as the first state to abolish slavery, a move it made in 1777 after the U.S. liberated itself from Britain. Twenty-seven years later, all of the Northern states vowed to outlaw slavery, but it continued to be practiced in the North for years. That’s because the Northern states implemented legislation that made slavery’s abolition gradual rather than immediate. PBS points out that Pennsylvania passed its Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in 1780, but gradual turned out to be an understatement. In 1850, hundreds of Pennsylvania blacks continued to live in bondage. Just more than a decade before the Civil War kicked off in 1861, slavery continued to be practiced in the North. Banning the Slave Trade The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1807 to ban the importation of enslaved Africans, and similar legislation took effect in Great Britain the same year. (The U.S. law went into effect on Jan. 1, 1808.) Given that South Carolina was the only state at this time that hadn’t outlawed the importation of slaves, Congress’ move wasn’t exactly groundbreaking. What’s more, by the time Congress decided to ban the importation of slaves, more than four million enslaved blacks already lived in the United States, according to the book Generations of Captivity: A History of African American Slaves. Since the children of those enslaved people would be born into slavery, and it wasn’t illegal for American slaveholders to trade those individuals domestically, the congressional act did not have a marked impact on slavery in the U.S. Elsewhere, Africans were still being shipped to Latin America and South America as late as the 1860s. Africans in the U.S. Today During the slave trade, about 30,000 enslaved Africans entered the U.S. yearly. Fast forward to 2005, and 50,000 Africans annually were entering the U.S. on their own volition. It marked a historic shift. â€Å"For the first time, more blacks are coming to the United States from Africa than during the slave trade,† The New York Times reported. The Times estimated that more than 600,000 Africans lived in the U.S. in 2005, about 1.7 percent of the African-American population. The actual number of Africans living in the United States might be even higher if the number of undocumented African immigrants was tallied.

Monday, February 17, 2020

Business Advantage from E-Commerce in Fashion Industry Essay - 1

Business Advantage from E-Commerce in Fashion Industry - Essay Example Internet marketing or e tailing offers other distinct advantages of (Marciniak & Bruce, 2009, p.259). Fernie & Sparks (2009) proposed a model that stated the use of technology for ensuring procurement practices at the organization. The model largely states the use of technology intensive software packages as well as use of online channel to facilitate competitive advantage(Fernie & Sparks, 2009, p.29). Outbound logistics for e-tailing industry implies the cost for delivery of goods to the customers. The revenue margin gained from cost savings in inbound logistics helps in taking care of the cost of outbound logistics. Fashion retailers can be classified into four main categories namely, brick and mortar based retailers, virtual e-retailers, catalogue based retailers and multi-channel retailers. Internet has largely changed the supply chain dynamics of the fashion retailers with firms trying to use the internet for developing better relationships with the customers (Marciniak & Bruce, 2009, p.260). Internet based online marketing firstly helps in providing efficient and fast service to the customers as e-tailing helps in integrating the sales activities with after sales support to generate greater value for the customers. Secondly, cost based advantages include reduced cost of inbound logistics as firms eliminate many intermediaries who serve to reduce the margins while not adding any significant value to the product offering. Thirdly firms also get access to a large database of customers which can be subjected to data mining techniques to generate competitive advantage (Windischhofer, 2003, p.24) . Marketing and supply chain management practices are largely correlated with each other. Marketing strategies are essentially forming the basis for supply chain activities of an organization. Supply chain strategies are largely the outcomes of the relationship between the suppliers.

Monday, February 3, 2020

Finance Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Finance Analysis - Assignment Example The company’s debt to total assets and the debt to equity ratio clearly shows that the company has been keen towards loan finance and currently the company’s debt as a percentage to its total has exceeded over 50%. The company’s quick ratio portrays a falling trend. This reduction in the quick ratio suggests that the company may face problems in paying of its obligations as they fall due, this can be because of an increase in debt obligation and a reduction in the ability to convert stock into cash (as shown by the inventory turnover ratio). 2. Assuming that the share price for REC company is $30, the company’s P/E ratio in the year 2004 would be 15.3 (30/1.96 (Market price per share/ EPS)). This P/E ratio can be considered to be good with respect to the clothing industry, hence it can be deduced that a $30 price per share for the REC company is the best value for money for an investor (Yahoo Finance, 2011). 3. The days payable outstanding ratio for the REC company is 41 days. This collection period is higher than the industry average, hence it clearly suggests that the wholesaler would be paid in comparison to the industry trend. As a wholesaler, this would not be amusing and would result in selling shoes to other retailers rather than REC company, who would pay a bit earlier i.e. in line with the industry average of days payable outstanding ratio. 4. As a recent college graduate, I would definitely join the company as the company seems to be a good learning prospect. The company operates in two different industries i.e. recreational equipment and clothing hence it would provide good learning exposure for me. The company’s finance department seems to be operating efficiently, considering the financial statements and the ratios prepared by the finance department. The financial statements seem to prepared after considering the relevant accounting and financial standards hence it the seniors