Solar Energy Essay -- Energy Sources, Solar Power

Someday, our energy sources are going to run out. What will we do? What can we do? Our major source of energy now is dodo fire. If that were to run out, there must be an alternate way to get energy. Because of this problem, there has been a lot of research going on. Through that research, alternate ship canal to get energy have been developed. They include wind energy, solar energy, nuclear energy, tidal energy and many more. In this paper I will focus on on the aspects of solar energy. I will look at the history of solar energy, cover the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy and then finally I will talk about the concept of solar energy (how it works) and ways that solar energy can be used in your everyday life. First permits look at the history of solar power. It has been more than a century ago that solar power was first looked into. Some people intrust that the reason for alternate energy sources came in the 1970s when there was an energy crisis. But accord ing to history, the first look at alternate energy sources came when a scare of running out of fossil fuel came about. Many different things were looked at, but solar power somehow was the one that was looked at the most seriously. at one time solar power was focused on, years later, there were ways that were invented to obtain the radiation from the sun and use it to make things work. However, the development of solar power weaken when World War I came along. After the war, energy was in demand and therefore, solar power took a back seat in science. Fossil fuel still remained the main source of energy at that time. Most of the credit for solar energy should go to the man by the name of Auguste Mouchout. Although he was a mathematics instructor, he did qu... ...ren. Technologies and Applications. 10 October 2014. http//www.canren.gc.ca/tech_appl/index.asp?CaId=5&PgId=121Darvill, Andy. solar Energy. 10 October 2014.http//www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/solar.htmThe Alterna te Energy Institute. Solar Energy. 10 October 2014.http//www.altenergy.org/AEI/6The Future of Solar Energy. 10 October 2014.http//www.history.rochester.edu/ tell apart/solar/future.htmThe Solar Cooking Archive. 10 October 2014.http//www.solarcooking.org/Smith, Charles. History of Solar Energy. 10 October 2014. http//www.solarenergy.com/info_history.htmlSolar Electric Power Association. Solar Power Basics. 10 October 2014.http//www.solarelectricpower.org/power/what_are_pvs.cfmSunWind Solar Industries. Uses of solar energy. 10 October 2014.http//www.web.net/sunwind/solar/solar_energy_uses.html

Characterization, Symbolism, and Repetition in Hundred Years of Solitud

Characterization, Symbolism, and Repetition in One Hundred Years of Solitude The names of characters often suggest something about their personalities, either straightforwardly or ironically. Garcia Marquezs One Hundred Years of Solitude, Prudencio Aguilar is neither prudent nor eagle-like (aguila means eagle in Spanish). Repetition of names and behaviors is another technique of characterization. Certain character types, e.g., the contemplative, indomitable man, or the impetuous, forceful man, the patient and nurturing woman, and so on, are represented by more than one individual in the several generations of the Buendia family. All the Jose Arcadios, for example, are presume to have at least some of the traits of the original Jose Arcadio Buendia (impetuous and forceful), and all the Aurelianos have something in common with Colonel Aureliano Buendia (tendency toward solitude and contemplation). The repetitions are not exact, but the use of quasi(prenominal) names is one way to s uggest more about a character than is actually said. There are also repetitions of particular behaviors, for example, secluding oneself in a room for experiments or study.Some characters have characteristic signs to identify them. Examples include Pilar Terneras laugh, Colonel Aureliano Buendias solitary look, Aureliano Segundos extravagance, Fernandas continual muttering, and so on. Physical descriptions are used sparingly, let the reader fill in the details beyond such generalities as skinny or fat, beautiful, huge. An exception is made for Colonel Aureliano Buendia, who seems to be drawn from an especially clean up mental image of the authors, as though copied from a photograph. Some of the more spectacular individuals are ... ...wears away the axle, until the whole system, including both the constant attempts to renew Macondo and the counterpart of the Buendia clan, breaks down. Works Cited Bell-Villada, Gene H. Garcia Marquez The Man and His Work. Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Griffin, Clive. The Humour of One Hundred Years of Solitude. In McGuirk and Cardwell, 81-94. James, Regina. Gabriel Garcia Marquez Revolutions in Wonderland. Columbia University of Missouri Press, 1981. McGuirk, Bernard and Richard Cardwell, edd. Gabriel Garcia Marquez untested Readings. Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1987). Williams, Raymond L. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Boston Twayne, 1984. Wood, Michael. Review of One Hundred Years of Solitude. In Critical Essays on Gabriel Garcia Marquez. McMurray, George R., ed. Boston G. K. Hall, 1987.

American Influence over New Zealand Culture Essay -- essays research p

War World 2 was a pivotal pane of convert for sunrise(prenominal) Zealand. The country went from being a colonial country dependent or rather in awe of our mother country, England, to being a colonial country now more excited with new contact with the new world super power of America. Americas acceptance as withstander of the Pacific was the wedge that quickly romanticises the New Zealand people into a 60 year love affair with all things American. New Zealand has now reached a point where American media and influence in this country has now become integrated into the New Zealand kitchen-gardening and psyche itself.American Influence over New Zealand finisSince the start of the American Invasion of New Zealand in 1942, New Zealand has become greatly dependent on America. From political to fashion, purification and entertainment, all areas of New Zealand vivification have been increasingly influenced from our relationship with the United States. Our loyalty/dependency to our o nce influential homelands in Britain, England especially, has been slowly washed a itinerary in the tides of American culture that floods the New Zealand citizen everyday. Just walking down the main street of any New Zealand town you dont have to look too farther to see a touch of America. Teenagers walk down the street, pants baggy and wearing hoodies. Music from shop radios drift onto the street, at least a 75% chance that the song is American made. The shop windows display Americanised tabloid magazines whose covers are littered by American Celebrities and their tragic love triangles. Next to the tabloid magazines sits the New Zealand version of Americas T.V Guide, in its pages news and show times of the hundreds of American shows that crowd New Zealands televisions channels. Inside the store American confectionary lines the front of the store, Fruit Bursts, Nestles coffee tree and a hundred others. In the corner sits a stand that holds a selection of Top 40 music Compact Disks , all American artists. And in the refrigerated drink units Americas product spearhead, Coke, sits cooling away waiting to be snatched up by the next customer who walks in. People line up at the movie theatre next door, five movies showing, all American. In the street outside a Ford Falcon is parked, another passes by on its way home. As the Ford Falcon pulls up its driveway you can see that even at home there is no escape from the re... ...ms that the fate of our countries culture lies hand in hand with that of the United States of America.Fig 1.http//www.nzhistory.net.nz/ aim/brief/image-pages/graph.htmlReferencesAmerican Studies. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 16, 2004, from http//www.canterbury.ac.nz/subjects/amst/Music and its role in caf culture. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 17, 2004, from http//www.nzhistory.net.nz/mph/cafe/wayne.htmlNew Zealand in the Second World War. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 16, 2004, from http//www.diggerhistory.info/pages-nz/nz-ww2.htmNew Zealand Music Month 2003. (2003). Re trieved 11 17, 2004, from http//www.nzonair.govt.nz/music_detail.php?pid=514&sid=500Phillips, J. (n.d.). The American invasion American forces and the New Zealand people. Retrieved 11 16, 2004, from http//www.nzhistory.net.nz/Gallery/brief/Routes of English. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 16, 2004, from http//www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofenglish/youtellus/transcript.shtmlThe Young and the Restless. Children and Adolescents in New Zealand 19301960. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 17, 2004, from http//www.nzhistory.net.nz/dnzb_exhibs/youth/

Impeachment Of Andrew :: essays research papers

One mans bullet would force him into the presidency, and but for one mans vote he would carry been forced forbidden. Like the impeachment of chair Clinton, the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson in 1868 also ended in an acquittal.And like President Clinton, Johnson was a Democratic hot seat who faced a Republican-controlled Congress. And while many were hostile to him for his political agenda, it would be an event separate from his policies that would nearly bring him down.Before it would end, a drama would play out in the Senate filled with partisanship, legal hairsplitting, and the swing votes of a handful of Republicans. The Road to ImpeachmentA war Democrat opposed to secession, in 1864 Johnson was tapped by Republican President Abraham Lincoln as his running mate to balance the Union ticket. He became president following Lincolns assassination in April 1865, just years after the Civil contend ended. As president, Johnsons desire to scale back Lincolns Reconstru ction legislation following the Civil War angered the Radical Republican majority that sought to punish the former rebels of the Confederacy. The stage was set for a partisan fight that would ultimately center roughly a single act. In February 1868, Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who was sympathetic to the Radical Republicans and who was overseeing the militarys Reconstruction efforts. A year earlier, Congress had passed the kick upstairs of Office Act, which prohibited a president from dismissing any officer confirmed by the Senate without first getting its approval. With Stantons firing, the call for Johnsons impeachment began. To say that they seized the chance was too strong, says Michael Les Benedict, a history professor at Ohio State University and the author of The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson. The president was in obvious defiance. He was daring them, it seemed, to impeach him. And if they didnt, it would have given him a green light to basica lly dismantle the Reconstruction program that Congress had passed. Political Opportunism?But others today see that impeachment as political opportunism. Namely, Johnson was opposed to congressional Reconstruction, says Hans Louis Trefousse, author of Andrew Johnson A Biography. So Johnson blocked that and, because he did, they Republicans eventually decided they should throw him out. A more technical head can hardly be imagined, and as a separate basis for removing a president from office it bordered on the absurd, wrote U.S.

Online Banking Essay example -- essays research papers

Online Banking How Technology has Affected the Bank Industry Aluscine Kabia Diana Mickle Jennifer RossBetty Tekeste University of Phoenix COM525 Managerial Communication and EthicsEdward L. DempseyMarch 14, 2005Modern applied science has set the stage for todays industries to adopt faster, more effective and efficient tools to improve their business and productivity. A vast majority of organizations within various industries atomic number 18 using new technology to introduce changes to their business operations. Simply stated, these changes are manifested in what they do, with whom they do it, how they do it, and the tools they use to get it done. However, it is worthwhile to poster that, while technology can offer beneficial changes to organizations, change usually comes with both positive and negative consequences. In any business, if technology serves as a catalyst for improvement without significant drawbacks, adopting the changes that it brings will be more beneficial than h armful. Online banking is a technological advancement that has brought about such a change. The banking industry has adopted virtual banking to improve business process, infra social organisation, and customer relationships. These changes have had a major wedge on the banking business, but more transparently on the customers of online banking. The matrix measures for the improvements added by online banking can be evaluated on comparable levels of service, efficiency and cost satisfaction, for both the provider and consumer of this technology. Throughout this document, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of online banking in hopes of formulating a better consciousness of why banks of today are moving towards online business. While virtual banking has considerable concerns, the advantages it generates, far outweighs the disadvantages because the value added through this technology benefits both the banks, and the customers.E-banking has had a considerable impact on to days banking business, affecting both customers and banks in multiple ways. Banking activities such as account inquiries, depositing or transferring funds and ordering checks, can instantaneously be done remotely, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. From a business organizational point of view, this technology is changing the employee structure of the average bank. The U.S Department of labor noted in 20... ...vestorguide.com/igubankonline.htmlOnline Banking Pages. (2005). Retrieved March 7, 2005 from the knowledge domain widely Webhttp//edt.uow.edu/au/elec195/group-projects-2k/group1/Limits.htmlRaghunathan, A. (2003). Security worries keep many from banking online. Retrieved March 7, 2005 from the World Wide Webhttp//www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7388475.htmThe virtual threat. (2000, May 18). The Economist. Retrieved February 11, 2005 from the World Wide Web http//80-www.economist.com.ezproxy.appollolibrary.comWhat is online banking? (2003, March 28). BankRate. Retr ieved March 8, 2005 from theWorld Wide Web http// http//www.bankrate.comWolfe, D. (2004, October 13). Why some are placing bets on in-branch online banking. American Banker. Retrieved March 9, 2005 from the World Wide Web http//www.apollolibrary.comYip, P. (2000, October 9). Net banking not for all lifestyles, comfort levels key to online accounts. Sun Sentinel. Retrieved March 9, 2005 from the World Wide Web http//proquest.umi.com

Contradictory Characterisations of Women in Shakespeares Othello Essay

Contradictory Characterisations of Women in Shakespe ares Othello Othello opens with a discussion between two men concerning the fate of a very beautiful charwoman named Desdemona. One of the men is distraught, having tried to win her love but miserably failed, and the other agrees that she is quite a prize. A prize is not just a name for Desdemona, as her humanity is lost somewhere along the way and she ceases to be anything but a prize to be won. Both men are angry and want to seek revenge against the man who won her, slandering Desdemonas name in the process. Their superior and rival, the man who won Desdemona, is none other than Othello. Othello has prove the two men inferior, obtaining what they could not. The two other mistreated women in the play are Emilia and Bianca, all three viewed as nothing more than objects of lust. Desdemona was born(p) from a high-class Venetian family Emilia is a servant Bianca is a whore, incidentally a word that Desdemona refuses to use. Altho ugh they all belong to completely different classes, they are all abused by men and become the objects of their sex... ...rk Penguin Books, 1968. Neely, Carol. Women and Men in Othello Critical Essays on Shakespeares Othello. Ed. Anthony G. Barthelemy Pub. Macmillan New York, NY 1994. (page 68-90) Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http//www.eiu.edu/multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos. Wayne, Valerie. historical Differences Misogyny and Othello. The Matter of Difference Materialist Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. Ed Valerie Wayne. Ithaca, NY Cornell University Press, 1991.

Study Guide Ap Bio Ch 16-18

Study guide for Ch 16-18 Chapter 16 Alfred Hershey and Martha chase answered the question whether protein or deoxyribonucleic acid was the genetic material by using Bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). o Bacteriaphages were good for the experiment because they only contain 2 organic compounds, deoxyribonucleic acid and protein. James Watson and Francis haystack were the first to solve the structure (structure=function) of DNA. X-ray crystallography( process used to visualize molecules in 3-D. DNA is a double helix- structure The nitrogenous bases of DNA argon( group A (A), thyroxin (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C). The 2 strands (the leading and the lagging strand) ar antiparallel. o The leading strand goes in direction 5 to 3. o Lagging strand goes 3 to 5. Takes longer to replicate cause its built in fragments. Tip from the book(know these enzymes for replication DNA polymerase, ligase, helicase, and topoisomerase. Know this enzyme for agreement(the routine of ribonucleic acid polymerase. Replication(making DNA from already existing DNA strand. DNA replication is semiconservative (1/2 of original DNA and the other ? is from new DNA strand). This is used by humans A group of enzymes called DNA polymerases catalyzes the elongation of new DNA at replication fork. The overall direction of DNA replication goes from the origin to the fork. o DNA polymerase adds nucleotides to the growing chain one by one dissembleing in a 5 to 3 (DNA build strand (new) or RNA polymerase go 5(3 in the build strand). Parent strand DNA and RNA polymerase is 3 to 5. o DNA polymerase matches adenine with thymine and guanine with cytosine o The lagging strand is synthesized in separate pieces called Okazaki fragments (which segments in 3(5), which are then sealed together by DNA Ligase.Forming a continuous DNA strand. Many factors in replication o Base pairing in DNA replication( A=T/ G=C. o Mismatch repair(special repair enzymes fix incorrectly paired nucleot ides o Nucleotide excision repair. Tip****(know the difference between replication (DNA to DNA), counterpartion (DNA to RNA), and translation (RNA to protein). In Eukaryotic stalls, DNA and protein are packed together as chromatin. o Heterochromatin(very condensed chromatin. o Euchromatin(loosely condensed chromatin. Telemer region(small fragment of DNA that is lost during replication due to enzymes inability to attach the fragment on to the end of the DNA helix. (This is our biological clock). Chapter 17 Gene cheek(the process by which DNA directs the synthesis of proteins (or sometimes RNA). Transcription= DNA(RNA o Takes place in the nucleus in eukaryotic cells. Messenger RNA ( informational RNA) produced during transcription. It carries the genetic message of DNA to the protein making machinery of the cell in the cytoplasm, ie the ribosome. The mRNA triplets are called codons (a codon is a mRNA triplet). o mRNA is read codon by codon. ? Start codons and stop codons are used in the build strand the protein secret writing segment is between the start codon and stop codon in the build strand. They are written in the 5 to 3 direction. More than one codon codes for each of the 20 amino acids. Genetic code includes 64 codons (4 x 4 x 4). o The group must be read in the correct groupings in order for translation to be successful o 3 codons act as signal terminators (UAA, UAG, UGA) o AUG always has to be start codon. RNA polymerase(enzyme that separates the 2 DNA strands and connects the RNA nucleotides as they base-pair along the DNA template strand. o RNA pol. Can add RNA nucleotides only to the 3 end of the strand. remember uracil replaces thymine when base pairing to adenine. ==difference betw DNA and RNA. o The DNA sequence at which RNA pol. Attaches is called the Promoter. o The DNA sequence that signals the end of transcription= Terminator. Transcription unit(the entire stretch of DNA that is transcribed into an RNA molecule. 3 main stages of transcription from the book. Initiation (RNA polymerase that transcribes mRNA can non bind to the promoter region without backup help from proteins known as transcription factors. transcription factors assist the binding of RNA polymerase to the promoter, thus the initiation of transcription) Notes o Elongation (RNA polymerase moves along the DNA, continuing to straighten the double helix. RNA nucleotides are continually added to the 3 end. As this happens, the double helix re-forms. Notes Termination (RNA polymerase transcribes a terminator sequence in the DNA, the RNA transcript is released, and the polymerase detaches. There a couple of key post-transcriptional modifications to RNA( the addition of a 5 cap and the addition of a poly A Tail (3). RNA splicing withal takes place in eukaryotic cells. Large portions of the newly synthesized RNA strand are removed. This is the parent strand. o The sections of the mRNA that are spliced out are called introns. o Sections that are s pliced together by a spliceosome(exons. ? The new strand containing the exons is called the build strand, which runs in a direction of 5 to 3.Remember parent strand runs in 3 to 5. Small nuclear RNA (snRNA)( plays a major role in catalyzing the excision of the introns and joining of exons. o Ribozyme is when RNA serves a catalytic role. Translation o 2 additional types of RNA play important roles in translation besides mRNA ? Transfer RNA ( acceptor RNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA). tRNA functions in transferring amino acids from a pool of amino acids located in cytoplasm to a ribosome. These amino acids are incorporated into a growing polypeptide chain. At one end of a tRNA it loosely binds the amino acid, and at the other end it has a nucleotide triplet called an anticodon (allows it to pair specifically with a complementary codon on the mRNA). rRNA complexes with proteins to form the 2 sub units that form ribosomes. o Translation can be divided into 3 move ? Initiation, Elongat ion, and Termination (descriptions of these steps can be found on pg 129-130 I got lazy so fuck off) The review guide goes into mutations on pg 130 but I withdraw that youre better off reading the guide than reading my description. Chapter 18 In bacteria, genes are often clustered into units called operons. Operon consists of 3 parts o factor controls the access of RNA polymerase to the genes, its found within the promoter region. ? Normally in on position. In a repressible operon. o Promoter where RNA polymerase attaches. o Genes of the operon the entire stretch of DNA required for all the enzymes produced by the operon. Regulatory Genes(produce repressor proteins that may bind to the operator site. When a regulatory protein occupies the operator site, RNA pol. Is blocked from the genes of the operon. Repressible operon( normally on. It can be inhibited. This type of operon is normally anabolic. o The repressor protein produced by the regulatory gene is inactive. o If the orga nic molecule organism produced by the operon is provided to the cell, the molecule can act as a corepressor, and bind to the repressor protein(this activates it. ? The activated repressor protein binds to the operator site, shutting down the operon. The lac operon is inducible o Controls the doing of B- galactosidase an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis (break down) of lactose into glucose and galactose ?Inducible operon(gene expression B-galactosidase is stimulated by the presence of a co inducer, lactose. Turns the repressor gene switch off. o This is notes on gene expression on tryptophan. Next stuff is from book. ? Inducible operon( normally off but can be activated. This type of operon is catabolic, breaking down food molecules for energy. The repressor protein produced by the regulatory gene is active. To turn the inducible operon on, a specific small molecule, called an inducer, binds to an inactivates the repressor protein.With the repressor out of the operator site, RNA polymerase can access the genes of the operon. o 2 regulatory mechanisms used to turn on lac operon ? Presence of lactose as co inducer ? Low amounts of glucose. These 2 are the only way for this shit to work yo Differential gene expression in eukaryotic cell gene expression o The expression of different genes by cells with the same genome. Histone acetylation( acetyl groups are added to amino acids of histone proteins, thus making the chromatin less tightly packed and encouraging transcription. DNA methylation( the addition of methyl groups to DNA it causes chromatin to condense, thus bring down gene expression. o With the help of phosphorylation next to a methylated amino acid, chromatin becomes loosened and thus encouraging transcription. Epigenic inheritance( the inheritance of traits transmitted by mechanisms not directly involving the nucleotide sequence. Transcription initiation is where DNA control elements that bind transcription factors are involved in regulation . Control elements( multiple control elements(segments of non cryptology DNA that serve as binding sites for transcription factors that help regulate transcription. o This is necessary for the precise regulation of gene expression in diff cell types. o Proximal and Distal control elements. ? Proximal control element has to be right next to promoter anything else is distal. Transcription factors( o Enhancer regions are bound to the promoter region by proteins called activators. o Some transcription factors function as repressors, others function as activators. Extra stuff TATA box is at the beginning of promoter region.

“I Go Back to May 1937” Essay

One paragraph on imagery in the poem One paragraph on a literary factor of your choice (metaphors, similes, etc.) I Go Back to May 1937 is a wonderfully crafted poem by Sharon Olds. This poem has more meaning than you give it, for the imagery and augur it is filled with. This poem tells you a baloney of how the narrators father and mother met and how their life expanded from there.I see my father strolling out / under(a) the ochre sandst cardinal arch, the / red tiles glinting like bent/plates of blood behind his head (2-5) feels like its such a wonderful day. New youngish people are graduating into the real world and everyones proud of them. Yet, reading closely shows you that the red tiles are bent like plates of blood is non righteous a color description. There is something so mysterious and foreboding behind him on such beautiful a graduation day.The ominous scene appears once more at I/ see my mother with a few light books at her hip/ standing at the pillar made of tiny bricks/ the work iron gate still open behind her, its/ sword-tips aglow in the May fashion (5-9) This time, the author puts in sword-tips aglow in the May air. Is it because the gate shall close on her life again and she will never be able to receive the happiness she should have gotten? The sharp knife finally cuts and twists into you when the narrator says, You are going to suffer in ways you have not heard of/You are going to want to die (18-19). After this one graduation day, everything breaks into pieces. The narrator is still worrying years later, even when he/she is finally an adult. The poem sends great images of how everything happened.Every word is carefully crafted so it fits and gives you the story the poet wishes to give you. The first two lines already give you an image of a young man leaving his college, strolling through this arch into his life, into his future. He is confident with his stride, not skipping, nor trudging. During the fifth and sixth line, there is a young woman there. She is more fragile, like carefully blown glass. She is the intellectual type as shown holding a few books, and lingering there at the gate, not moving. She is anticipating the time that she enters the world as a woman.Toward the end of the poem, the poet says Take them up like the male and womanly/ paper dolls and bang them together/ at the hips, like chips of flint, as if to/ strike sparks from them (26-29). This is where you see just two dolls, whos expressions change and they cry out as the narrator hits them at each other. In the end though, the anger just burns out and all the narrator can do is decide Do what you are going to do, and I will tell about it (30).

Demand Elasticity of Luxury Automobiles Essay

1. Introduction As long as thither is a society, there will always be invent. It was non surprised a mood dishonors, e peculiar(a)ly a opulence musical mode reproachs became a national treasure which effect the issues in dividing line, political and social empyrean in European countries. Since the Hermas established in 1837, a special victimization dodging model has formed and matured in European luxuriousness gathering. Daniele de winter, the chief executive officer of Daniele de Winter Cosmetics state that the secret of succeederful fashion management is a complete blend of creative genius and origin management acumen, skill and imaginativeness.The develop schema is the key issue for a successful high life fashion family. With the development of economy and the increase of income, more and more sumptuousness fashion companies expand their business into Asia- peace-loving orbit, especially the Hong Kong and main(prenominal)land china commercialize. consort to the annual report of Richemont, The Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR), Hemes, Bulberry and other luxuriousness fashion companies, the sales event revenue of Asia- Pacific region cards for more than 30% of the Group total revenue. The Change of Global Luxury Fashion MarketThe word sumptuosity origin from Latin word luxuria, which means an item that is expensive and enjoyable that no essential (Waite, 2012). In 186 BCE, the victory of army of Gnaeus Manlius Vulso brought much(prenominal) overseas high life as dye couches, and costly cloth spreads into Rome. For some Roman historians, the triumph of Vulso marked as the beginning of luxury industry in Europe. With the development of centres, modern luxury fashion industry has draw a cross-sectors industry which offers high price goods and service for target consumers. However, in the space of two decades, the modern luxury groceryplace has reassignd beyond recognition.The narrow range of need and demand of target consumers and the exclusive- distribution channels, represented by French Fashion, have been replaced by a mass industry, accompanied by expansion brands with an affordable price by a wider range of consumers. Since the beginning of 1990s, the luxury industry has been recognised and restructured by designers and the fashion designers become the creator of art. According to the statistics from France Economic and Social Council in 2008 (France Economic and Social Council, 2008), with the system of physical shop/ store and expansion brands benefit seven million euros.Depending on the delight and internationalisation, the luxury industry becomes an industry with wider consumers. For example, Hemes, managed by Jean-Louis Dumas, diversities their goods and creates bleak products. The French luxury manufacture gets a successful on brand art by buying crystal brand Saint Louis and Silversmith Puiforcat. Similarly, Richemont Family, the main competitor of French brand, also control numbers of br ands, such as Carites, Baume & Mercier and Van Cleef & Arpells. The second change of luxury industry is the transformation from the handmade custom to industrial warningisation.Taking LVMH as example, there are three center of attentions of product, as wines and odour, luggage and trounce, and fashion and centre industry. The famous brands in luxury world, desire as Moet & Chandon, Loewe, Vuitton, Givenchy, Kenzo, Dior and Guerlain, standardise the products like other heavy industries. Along with the profit-seeking financial logic, the merchandising and the product standardisation become the major notion with the concept of large-scale product. In the new centre, the concept of luxury industry and the demand of consumers are changing all the time.Heritage and prestige is the landmark of lots of luxury brands and the enduring economic lever of numbers of particular brands. Comparing with the old style luxury brand which habitd to be a heritage brand (Coste-Maniere, et al. , 2 012), the new concept of luxury, developed by Louis Vuitton and Burberry, means authoritative by more consumers. For the occasional customers, they just enjoy the justifiedly of luxury in physical store against with the conventional customer-exclusive. In the new era, increasing the number of customers buy the fashion product they could afford, rather than become the royal consumer collectable to the high price.Consequently, emphasis of consumer need and the competitive advantage means centralising the core value and expending brand boundary simultaneously. 2. 2 The Development dodging Model of Luxury Fashion Brand The luxury fashion brand originate in European countries which have plentiful historical and pagan background. With the development of servial centres, the luxury fashion industry in European, American and Japanese have become mature and standarlisation. Under this circumstance, the strategy of luxury development in western sandwich countries centralize on the bran d expansion, striving for the core products and development of brand reputation.2. 2. 1 Brand Expansion the Foundational Strategy Under the press of financial-seeking strategy and the opaline of luxury food market place place, the old style luxury fashion brand brasss the challenge of development in the mature market in traditional European, American and Japanese region. Under this circumstance, the expansion of brands has become the foundational strategy for a large number of luxury fashion incorporateds, which offer a new opportunity to stress the brand image, the or so significant assets for a luxury fashion company.(Albrecht, et al. , 2013 Uggla & Lashgari, 2012 Hoffmann & Coste-Maniere, 2012)Many luxury companies breakthrough the traditional product boundary and expensed their business into new market segmentations. For instance, Louis Vuitton, beginning with luggage, invested in other creative spheres ready-to-wear industry as well as jewellery market (LVMH, 2012), and Gucci, beginning with leather goods, developed all sets of fashion products including leather goods, shoes, ready-to-wear, watches, jewellery and other products.(PPR, 2012). Meanwhile, there are some companies expensed segments into non-traditional area. For example, the luxury jewellery manufacture Bulgari and Italian brand Versace started to offer hotel under their brand (LVMH, 2012) and Armani depict opposite products from books, furniture and chocolates to restaurants, bars and spas. The another Italian luxury brand, Roberro Cavalli, famous for its fashion apparel for young generation, offer wine and vodka as well as die coffee bar (The Cavalli Caffe) and club (The Cavalli Club). 2. 2.2 Striving for the Core The Product Strategy For a ball-shaped corporate, it is common rules of development depend on the core production or service and then diversification. However, even as diversification, the excellence core production and the strongest sectors within the luxury brands cont inued to seduce the majority of its net income from the traditional products. (Ahrendts, 2013 Beverland, 2005 Miller & Mills, 2012). For luxury consumer, they expect to acquire a honorable brands and product so that they emphase on the value of core heritage.The leather goods, the core of Gucci Group, earn 59% of its revenue in 2012 (PPR, 2012). The iconic luggage is the tradition from the time corporate was founded and become the brand image of the LVMH Group. (LVMH, 2011) The turning of Burberry from a ageing British brand to a global luxury brand is a successful product strategy transition. Before 2006, through in a burgeoning global market. Burberry set about a low growth at a rate of 2 percentage every year and two competitors LVMH and PPR had more than 12 times and 16 times Burberrys sale revenue.By surving the sectors among Burberry products all over the world, the results indicate the outerwear, as the core, only accourted of 20% of Burberrys global brand business. Figur e 1 the Facts and Financial Statistics of Burberry (Resource from Burberry, Yahoo Finance) pic After brainstorming and formalizing from the administrative board, the New Jersey factore which is do polo shirts was closed and invested in the Casteford factory in Yorkshire which make the heritage trech rise up included traditional rainwear and exclusive waterproof gabardine.Burberry also hire Christopher Bailey as the global designer for innovation of core products. The facts and financial statistic of Burberry from 2006 to 2012 in Figure 1 showed that the decision to focus on the heritage opened up a wealth of creativity. By the end of 2012, the sale revenues and operating income had doubled than previous 5 years, achieving $3 billion and $600 billion respectively. (Burberry, 2007 Burberry, 2012) 2. 2. 3 The Brand Reputation The Brand Strategy The brand is the most valuable part of luxury goods and the motivity of luxury inlet.Once separating from the luxury brand, the goods is the ordinary one. Every successful company sees the brand as the most valuable fortune. they use the advanced selling logic and marketing operation to motivate the development, explore approaches to express the value and connotation of brands to luxury consumers and attract the royality of customers. As a tool of art, a carrier of history, and a spirit of classic, building-up a high quiality reputation is brand strategy for luxury companies.Since founded in 1847, Cartier, as one of the most established name in the jewellay market, is the reference of ture and unfailing luxury. Designing by Cartier, the product distinguishes itself by the unique skills and excellence in design and execution. Nearly in 30 years, the extensive art activities are not competitive without the support by the Foundation Crtier pour lArt Contemporain (Richemont, 2013). With the development of brand reputation, Cartier is the synonym of modern art and a pioneering approach. Meanwhile, most of luxury brands com e from the centre of Renaissance 2.3 The Features of Chinese Luxury Market Chinese market places the second place in the world of luxury consumption, prodigious the United States since 2008. Along with Japan, China is the strongest market with the increasing demand of 20 percentages. The consulting report from Glob Advantage estimate there are 18 atomic number 19 billionaires, 440 thousand multimillionaires and increasing the number of middle class achieving 250 million in 2015 in todays China (Degen, 2009), which have the strong purchase post and need of luxury fashion industry.Even with the influence of the financial crisis, the sale revenue of luxury fashion in the mainland China rose by 16 percent, reaching about 64 billion RMB. The market look for about Chinese market laid a foundation for the development and expansion strategy of luxury brands. The shifting attitudes to luxury brands, the greater sophistication of Chinese consumers and the new geographic markets have becom e the main features of Chinese luxury market. The three characteristics claim the global strategy of development for luxury brands. Figure 2.According to the survey of McKinsey & Company (KPMG, 2013), with the rapidly increase of income, more and more Chinese consumers shifts the attitude to luxury and feel comfortable to purchasing luxury products. The rich consumers which income over 300,000 RMB continued occupy the majority of the luxury purchase. Meanwhile, the statistics show that, the upper middle class ( amidst 100,000 RMB and 200,000 RMB), which reckon for 22% of luxury goods purchase by the end of 2015, as the Figure 2 suggested, offers the biggest new growth opportunity. 2. 3. 1 The increasing number of overseas travel.In the teaching era, Chinese consumers have become more sophisticated than before. With the surge in the number of luxury stores, fashion magazine, the Web official site and the use of social media, Chinese consumers familiar with the luxury brands with t he help of Internet, overseas travel, and the first-hand experience. For example, the research result indicated that in the last 12 months, the Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macro and Europe become the main destinations of overseas luxury purchase. Figure 3 Where did you purchase your cosmetics in the last 12 months? (Resource from Global Reach of China Luxury of KPMG) pic 2. 3.2 The increase of new market segmentation The rapidly growth of urbanisation and individual wealth emerge large quantity of geographic markets with sizable pools of luxury-goods consumptions. The luxury purchase and sale revenue of some medium and small cities, such as Qingdao in Shandong province and Wuxi in Zhejiang province, tripled than the previous 5 years. In the following years, the luxury consumption in these medium and small cities will achieve the same level with Hangzhou and Nanjing, the most developed market in mainland China, the sale of which will arrive at RMB 500 million yuan and account for 76% of whole market.2. 3. 3 The increasing of Counterfeit goods Love for luxury, preference for counterfeit is a unique phenomenon in luxury consumption in Chinese luxury market. According to a report entitled Transnational Organized Crime in East Asia and the Pacific from Office on Drugs and Crime, almost 70% of global counterfeits luxury goods come from China and the value of counterfeit luxury goods imported into traditional luxury market on the separate of $25 billion annually.In a confusion society , the luxury consumption of Chinese consumers become more irrationally than western consumer, which depended on the extenral need rather internal need (Zhang & Kim, 2013). For Chinese consumers, luxury brands are somethings must to have for them to reinforce their social status. however, the wealth gap between the rich and the poor in China is the largest all over the world, which offer the passion for consumption of luxury counterfeits. The young generation, aged 25 to 34 with peculiar(a) bud get for genuine luxury fashion goods, racked up nearly a quarter fo fake fanciers.2. 4 The Passion for Luxury Consumption of Chinese consumers China is the second largest luxury market all over the world and attracting the attention of consumption of Chinese consumers. Under the influence of unique economic situation, cultural background and social factor, the behaviour of Chinese consumers in luxury fashion market have the distinctive characteristics. The bling factor influenced by economic situation, the saving face affected by the Confucianism and group orientation as the social factor drive the luxury consumption in Chinese fashion market. 2.4. 1 The Bling broker With the emerging of Internet, fashion magazines and social media, more and more Chinese consumers know the brands of luxury brands. However, the cultural concept and history of the luxury fashion brands are utmost away from numbers of Chinese luxury consumers. For many luxury fashion regulars, there is not one typic al luxury customer in China due to the contrasting habits, different tastes and different income levels. The bling factor or following the whole market trend remains an pregnant factor for the Chinese consumer in luxury fashion market.For example, check to luxury consumer report of Chinese market, almost 60 percent of the respondents in point 1 cities including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and other Tier 2 cities, stated that the key drivers for luxury consumption is the willingness to pay a product that just is popular or fashionable goods. Exclusivity or unique is an important understanding of luxury brand for Chinese consumption. There are about one fifth of customers consider that they will pay the luxury goods that are cognise and appreciated by the minority rather than the famous one.In terms of Chinas unique cultural background, the Chinese consumers consider luxury brand value influenced by Confucianism. In the concept of Confucian, the notion of mianzi is def ined as a reputation achieved through getting on in through success and ostentation. (Hu, 1944 Dong & Lee, 2007) The traditional cultural understanding and effecting about the face saving becomes the strongest and most conspicuous passion for luxury consumption, which means concerning about the travel to other and the visual display than the level of income.The Chinese consumer in luxury world trend to pay a premium product on the luxury brand rather than essential goods in daily life, due to strong desire and pressure of maintaining face. Taking the finding of KPMG as the example, comparing with the apparel, the stronger growth of market for fashion accessories is considerable. Nearly 40% of luxury consumers enjoy the luxury experiences and the right of luxury in a physical store/shop over purchases of luxury items.Overall, the face saving (saving mianzi) relates to the individual image of worth and reputation within a collectivism society. As the result, Chinese consumers are oft en careful not to lose face by standing out from the crowed when consuming luxury goods. The ecumenic strategy Although the market has its particular features, the development of luxury fashion strategy in Chinese luxury market is followed the general rules of luxury firms in global market. As the foundation strategy, the brand consultation and production diversification also provide the base of the development in Chinese luxury market.The apparel, handbag, jewellery, fashion accessories and luxury servicers are offered in mainland China, especially in Tier 1 cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Promoting the sale revenue of the core products in mainland China, as the product strategy, enhances the brand awareness in Chinese market. Expanding the influence, luxury fashion firms invest large inwardness of money to popularize the brand reputation as a simple of elegance and grandeur as well as the means of fashion and art. The marketing strategy raising brand awareness.Due to the lower brand awareness and lack of knowledge of brand value, the royalty of brand in Chinese market is lower than its in traditional European market. The special situation provides a strong externally powerful tool, which means not only expand the value of the luxury brand into a regular group of consumers, but also sway them making a purchase. In recent year, luxury fashion firm invest increasing the number of budget into Chinese market not only promote the brand awareness, but also help the consumers inform a notion about luxury goods and luxury lifestyle and why they should purchase luxury goods and luxury services.The brand building-up develop based not only the publicise on hard paper and television, also included the display on luxury goods line of battle and the customised publications. Nowadays, more and more luxury fashion goods exhibition held in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, which offer a good opportunity for Chinese consumers to visit the luxury goods freq uently displayed in store. Meanwhile, more and more consumers visiting the exhibition are not an onlooker. The localisation strategyThe luxury fashion brand with high brand awareness contain the European and American culture and value which is living standard of high level, the product and design of high fiber. Those values accepted by and attract young generation who trend to, however, it is not accepted by all Chinese consumers who have their own value. Respecting to Chinese traditional culture and integrated it into the product value is the essential of luxury fashion business in China.For example, Louis Vuitton setting Du Juan, the one of top Chinese model all over the world, and publicize as the Chinese image step one right place on direction and help western luxury fashion companies overcome the cultural barriers. This kind of strategy could build up strong attachments among Chinese consumers and help them accepted the unique characteristic of luxury fashion brands. The pric ing strategy Price is one of the most significant signals in Chinese business world. For most Chinese consumers, price represented the value of luxury fashion goods.As a result, the luxury fashion products should not go on discount, no matter what the consumer is. The pricing strategy about goods, especially about core products, could bolster a brands prestige. For other items, companies could adjust the price according to the market condition and the inventory in order to long-term brand building. The retailing strategy A stupendous store belongs to the luxury fashion company located in the luxury area build up a sense of important and identified by the market.The luxury fashion positioning compound if the boutiques are visible to a lot of consumer in major fashion cities. The landmark stores opened in Chinese Tier 1 cities, such as Beijing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, are the best locations to building the brand image and attracting the target customer groups. The commercial centres and shopping malls in luxury area are welcomed by most of fashion lovers, luxury followers and luxury intellectuals.Meanwhile, the investment on the landmark store is the best and effective way to generate profits and build-up brand royalty. In an Internet era, shopping online has become the major shopping way, especially for the young people. Although most luxury fashion companies have shied away from online channels due to the fearing that e-commerce big businessman reduce the value of the luxury brand. However, for a long-term return and brand building, online platform provides not only a purchase channel, but also an information exchange channel between luxury fashion brand and Chinese consumers.With the developing of GDP and individual income of consumers, the global luxury fashion market and such the emerging market as China, have become the strategic focus of luxury market researcher and the consult company. This report attempts to identify development strategy of the luxury fashion brand, especially in mainland China market through the analysis of the change of global luxury fashion brand, overview of Chinese luxury market and the passion for luxury consumption.All those factors were identified depend on a comprehensive review of luxury fashion goods related researches and market consulting reports. The findings of this study provide a new insight of global and Chinese luxury fashion market for the consumers who interests the luxury fashion brand and a clear strategy go along for market managers of the luxury fashion firms, particular in the time of the company expand their business in mainland China. In addition, the study helps reduce the risks and costs of market research and helps the company overcome the huge gap in a multicultural business environment.First, the findings about the global luxury fashion market and the general development strategy in luxury fashion market all over the world indicated that the achieving the growth while remaining exclusive positioning, and attracting more consumers without losing sealing wax of brand value is the core strategy for every luxury corporates. The more loyal consumers may weaken due to the popular brands launched in the market because they make out pay a premium goods that majority and identified by small group.Consequently, the balance between growth and unique, the price and quality may be tougher in China than in any other market. However, customization develops quickly as the new trend of luxury fashion industry. The customizing activities have launched in different business sectors, but which is yet adopted by the luxury industry on a board. At presents, the customization just limited on the area of fashion accessories, apparel, handbags, and jewellery, and emphasising on customizing standard products, point of delivery customization and service and producing bespoke goods.Secondly, the increasing the number of consumers, overseas traveller, new market segments and the cou nterfeits goods have become the main features in the Chinese luxury fashion market in recent years. The features are important of stress the benefits of investment in mainland China. Based on the research findings, International marketers should setting extension strategy that is coherent with branding, merchandising and global image by serving Chinas globetrotting shoppers, striking the balance between store numbers and quality and focusing anti-counterfeit goods.For Chinese globetrotting shoppers, the customer relationship management should emphasis global view rather than on mainland China. In the view of higher management board, the corporate compositional structure of the luxury fashion company should reflect the significant of Chinese market by sorting up the processes for generating direct communication between Chinese luxury consumers and the home headquarter. Based on the new market segmentation, the luxury company should upgrade current stores and outlets in order to keep consistent with the global image and emphasis on the business in Tier 1 cities.As the market statistics indicated that the luxury counterfeit goods have become the barriers for development in China, including seizing sale revenue and weakening brand value. Luxury fashion companies should co-operate with customs officials to seize fake goods at ports. Working with international national organisation or international associations should be the third path for anti-counterfeit activities. The co-operation should ranges from such international associations as World Intellectual Property to regional groups like US-focused International Anti-Counterfeits Coalition.Thirdly, the research findings about the passions for Chinese luxury fashion consumption indicated that the bling customers who lack of knowledge about luxury fashion goods or just following the trend account of a part of Chinese luxury consumers. Besides that, Chinese luxury consumption deeply influenced by saving faces and gro up orientation, which are the part of traditional Confusion value. Targeting different drivers of luxury consumption, managers should have different strategies.For the bling customers, the global luxury firms should invest in improving the brand awareness and expanding the brand value, which could offer a global opportunity to attracting potential customers and building loyalty and repeat customer groups. For the consumers who care about saving face, International luxury fashion markers should draw the dodging of visual and outward appearance of rank and status when unfolding their marketing activities. Meanwhile, the companies should emphasise the brands country of origin, so the Chinese consumers have the positive(p) to identified and distinguished with other mass products.In addition, the package of luxury goods also need to be recognisable in order to fit the determine and lifestyle associated with Chinese consumers. Furthermore, in light of the results about group orientatio n, the management board company should stress the profit of luxury fashion goods as a symbol of social marker and the sale assistants inspire consumer purchases because of the goods could generate a sense of group belonging and conformity of the elite. Due to the group belonging, a special attention should be minded(p) to the layout of the physical store and the luxury service of sale staff.No matter who is the consumer, friends will be involved during the decision making process and become potential consumers in the future. Proving high-quality services and creating luxury experience for non-buyers also benefit for making sure that the brand accepted by group and that the consumer does not stand out from others. Finally, about the current expansion strategy in mainland China market, most of luxury fashion companies emphasis the strategy on marking, localization, pricing and retailing coherent with the global business aims.Raising brand awareness and expressing the luxury lifestyle lay the foundation of marketing strategy. In order to respect to Chinese traditional culture, luxury brands should integrate Chinese culture and art into design, package, and store layout of products, which accepted easily by Chinese consumers in different social class. Meanwhile, the research findings indicated that the price is the most important factor which influenced Chinese luxury consumption. Luxury marketers should balance the price between Chinese market and overseas.As for the retailing strategy, the luxury brand stresses the developing of boutiques store and the setting up online distribution channels. However, there are several special attention should be given to price gap between China and overseas, and the online distribution channels. On one hand, comparing with that rarely go on discount in mainland China, the luxury fashion goods is often at a discount at overseas, especially for the non-core products and in the time of Christmas or Summer Sale.On the other hand, the high rate of value and fees raise up the price of luxury fashion goods in mainland China. According to the law and regulations in China, a luxury fashion goods, such as the sum cream of Estee Lauder native to the UK, is imported into Chinese market with 10% import tariff, 30% consumption tax, 5% sales tax and 17% value-add tax. Including the managing fees, advertising costs and other issues, the price of the eye cream is double in the UK.In the respect of the luxury company, the appreciate discount in Chinese market could promote the desire of consumption and boost the sale revenue in the respect of tax policy makers in mainland China, reducing the rate of import tariff and consumption tax of international luxury fashion goods could Finally, luxury fashion goods, as a subject of nature, play different or scenarios, different income level, educational activity background, and social economic factors, as well as exam the type of relationship that seek from luxury fashion bran ds.On the view of passions for luxury consumption, there are many other drivers, such as collection, appreciation, should take the consideration into further research.

Giving Kids Candy Is Anything But Sweet Essay

Children be attracted to sweets as much as ants are attracted to them. They prefer to eat chocolates, candies, or ice creams than healthy sandwiches or snacks. This is the reason why majority of the companies target their products to young children. They know children simply cannot resist sweets. The author in the article states that it has become very hard for him to decide his kids access to candies and other sweets because everybody else is doing the exact opposite of what he is doing. People see sweets as something to give to children as a reward when they do something good.They do not see the membranous effect it brings to childrens way of thinking and health, as the article also suggests. It is not very hard to invent candies and other kinds of sweet foods. Groceries, convenience stores, and even the dentists offices have them in varieties. Any parent who wants their children to have a healthy eating lifestyle might as well forget about doing this because it seems impossi ble with all the sources that kids can easily get their sweets from. The media also does not help because of the commercials and advertising of these unhealthy food products.This makes it even harder for parents to get their child to eat better and healthier foods. Fruits and vegetables are definitely out of the question, which threatens the health of these young children and brings the discussion to the second intellect of the article. Kids nowadays are very much up to date when it comes to technology. They turn over countless of hours in front of the Internet to play games, chat with their friends, and check their emails and personalized webpages. They are also addicted to video games because they find them fun with or without playing with their friends.Watching television is also one of the things that young people spend their time on. Because of these things, they have become accustomed to an inactive lifestyle. The author states that there are many bigger issues facing our w orld today than candy role but what he is concerned about is the health of these young children (Beasley, 2005). I agree that this kind of lifestyle and the promotion of the public that eating sweets is okay are not helping teach children that being healthy is important.The sedentary lifestyle they have developed and the availability of sweet foods everywhere can lead to honorable conditions including obesity, hypertension, or diabetes. These kids do not take health issues seriously because they feel that they are too young to develop them. It is never too early to be concerned about ones health. Parents need to stand their ground with regard to their childrens health no matter what the media says or how available are the resources for sweet food products.They also need to take time and educate their kids the dangers of getting used to a sedentary lifestyle, as well as the distinct diseases that can be developed from inactivity and unhealthy eating habits. The public also has to do their part and realize that what they are promoting such as magnanimous candies as a reward or a making kids believe that they can never have too much candy are not helping the parents who want the best for their children.ReferenceBeasley, D. (2005, April 18). Giving Kids Candy Is Anything But Sweet. Newsweek.

How Important Are Ethics and Social Responsibility?

The research register for this daybook is operable at http//www. mcbup. com/research_registers The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http//www. emerald-library. com/ft How burning(prenominal) argon moral philosophy and hearty office? A multinational psychoanalyze of selling professionals Anusorn Singhapakdi and Kiran Karande College of line of business and Public Administration, long timeing Dominion University, Virginia, the States How historic atomic number 18 morals? 133Received September 1998 Revised March 1999 June 1999 September 1999 College of Administrative Sciences, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait, and School of Business Administration, University of Mississippi, ground forces Keywords International marketing, morals, Social state, National market-gardenings, Consumer behaviour Abstract States that in the present era of global marketing, as to a greater limit companies enter international markets, honest problems at omic number 18 likely to increase.As companies and their manold agers deal with their counterparts in distinguishable countries, thither is a need to understand the latters honest determination-making processes. Divergence in honest behavior and attitudes of marketing professionals across cultures gutter be explained by, among other variables, differences in perceptions regarding the grandeur of morals and affectionate accountability in achieving organisational long suit. This playing area investigates the variation in those perceptions among marketing professionals from Australia, Malaysia, reciprocal ohm Africa, and the USA.The variation is explained by inelegant differences (ethnical differences, differences in the economic environs, and differences in intelligent/ g everywherenmental environment), organisational honest climate, and selected demographic characteristics of the marketer ( sex activity and age). C. P. Rao Scott J. Vitell Introduction The sphere of moral philosophy has fashion increasingly authoritative with global business expansion, because of an increase in respectable and well-disposed responsibility concerns that businesses face in different domain environments.There exists, however, a wide divergence in the level of grandeur appropriateed to these two issues in different countries (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 1998). Moreover, vast differences exist from commonwealth to country in the economic instruction, cultural standards, wakeless/political systems, and expectations regarding business conduct (Wotruba, 1997). In addition, there is great divergence in the enforcement of policies (Mittelstaedt and Mittelstaedt, 1997). The authors would like to thank Mohd.Rashid Ahmed, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia, Malaysia Nicola Higgs-Kleyn, University of the Witwatersrand, southeastward Africa and Muris Cicic, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia for their assistance in the data collection for this have. The authors wou ld excessively like to thank Janet Marta for her comments on the earlier versions of the manuscript. European ledger of selling, Vol. 35 no. 1/2, 2001, pp. 133-152. MCB University Press, 0309-0566 European Journal of Marketing 35,1/2 134In the business morals literature, respectable variations among marketers/ managers from different nations argon documented in many empirical studies on ming guide types of respectable issues (e. g. Arm knock-down(prenominal) et al. , 1990 Graham, 1985 Becker and Fritzsche, 1987). Variation in ethics across cultures was evidenced in a cross-national study of industrial salespeople by Dubinsky et al. (1991) where some signifi gaget differences in ethical perceptions were found among marketing managers from Japan, Korea, and the USA. A study by Singhapakdi et al. 1994) also revealed that American and Thai marketers differ on various components of their ethical purpose-making process. However, international researchers become non investigat ed differences in the end to which marketers from different countries bank that ethics and tender responsibility are important for government activityal effectiveness. An exclusives perception somewhat whether ethics and hearty responsibility contribute to organisational effectiveness is likely to be a critical antecedent of whether he/she even embraces an ethical problem in a presumption situation (Singhapakdi et al. 1995). This is a pragmatic view base on an argument that managers must first cover ethics and social responsibility to be full of life to organizational effectiveness before their behaviors will become more ethical and reflect great social responsibility. This view is consistent with lead and Vitells (1986) depiction of ethical judgment as including a teleological evaluation, when an somebody evaluates alternative actions by weighing the comprehend probability and desirability of consequences.Essenti in ally, a managers choice of behavior in a situation that has problematic ethical content will be establish on his/her perception of the likelihood that the actions will bring about a desired outcome. This view is also consistent with Jones (1991) issue-contingent model where it is postulated that the probability of effect which is defined as the probability that the act in question will in truth take place and the act in question will actually cause the harm (benefit) (Jones, 1991, p. 75) will affect an individuals ethical decision making. Intuitively, ethics and social responsibility should have a positive impact on the winner of an organization, because consumers make ethical judgments that are likely to ferment their purchases. As Laczniak and Murphy (1993, p. 5) ordinate it Consumers over time will normally recognize the organizations that endeavour to be responsive to various ethical and social brokers in the marketplace. accordly, it is vital for marketers to in corporate ethical and social considerations in their work. Th us, the aim of this study is to investigate whether marketers from Australia, Malaysia, south Africa, and the USA differ in the consequence to which they believe that ethical and socially responsible practices are important in relation to various aspects of organizational effectiveness such as feeling, communication, profits, competitiveness, survival, force, and stakeholder satisfaction.establish on past literature that emphasizes cultural factors, corporate culture, and individual characteristics (e. g. Hunt and Vitell, 1986 Ferrell and Gresham, 1985), the cross-cultural variation in marketers perceived sizeableness of ethics and social responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness is explained by country differences (including cultural differences and differences in the economic environment), organizational ethical climate, and selected demographic characteristics of individual marketers.The quartet countries included were judged appropriate because they are geo graphically separated and exhibit differences in legal injury of Hofstedes (1980) five cultural proportions and the level of economic development, which are used to support the hypothesis about country differences.Theoretical foundation and hypotheses In this section it is proposed that the variations in the perceived greatness of ethics and social responsibility as determinants of organizational effectiveness is explained by country differences (including cultural differences and differences in the economic environment), organizational ethical climate, and individual characteristics of gender and age. Figure 1 summarizes the proposed framework. Country differences Cultural differences. Hofstede (1980) and Hofstede and Bond (1988) proposed a typology for classifying cultures based on five plazas (1) individualism (2) un currentty avoidanceHow important are ethics? 135 Figure 1. Theoretical framework European Journal of Marketing 35,1/2 136 (3) power distance (4) masculinity a nd (5) Confucian dynamism. It is hypothesized that these cultural dimensions contribute to differences in the perceived richness of ethics and social responsibility. For example, marketers in collectivistic countries (such as Malaysia) would be expected to be more loyal to their organizations because of greater dependence (Hofstede, 1983), and therefore, concerned for their organizations well-being when making decisions that enhance organizational effectiveness.Consequently, collectivistic cultures would attach more sizeableness to achieving superior organizational performance than to ethics and socially responsibility. Masculine societies encourage individuals to be ambitious and competitive, and to strive for material success (Hofstede, 1980), which may tempt marketers from countries be high on masculinity to achieve greater efficiency, at all costs. Therefore, they would attach less importance to ethics and social responsibility than to efficiency, competitiveness, and long-t erm survival.Individuals from cultures with high power distance (such as Malaysia) usually take over the inequality of power, perceive differences mingled with superiors and subordinates, are reluctant to dis tick off with superiors and believe that superiors are entitled to privileges (Hofstede, 1983). Consequently, marketers from high power distance countries are likely to perceive a need to minimize disagreement with superiors and satisfy superiors through improved performance. In other words, organizational performance is likely to be relatively more important to them relative to the extent to which a decision is ethical and socially responsible.The risk-taking orientation of marketers from low uncertainty avoiding countries would lead them to believe that it aptitude be outlay taking the risk of unethical actions in order to improve efficiency and competitiveness. Therefore, marketers from low uncertainty avoidance countries are likely to attach less importance to ethics an d social responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness. Individuals in countries casteing high on Confucian dynamism tend to adhere to the more future-oriented teachings of Confucius those from countries ranking low on Confucian dynamism tend to be more present- and past-oriented (Hofstede and Bond, 1988).From the perspective of this study, marketers from cultures ranking high on Confucian dynamism have a strong sense of shame and are likely to be wary of actions that are improper or disgraceful. Marketers from high Confucian dynamism countries (such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea) would, therefore, believe that any actions bringing disrepute and shame to the company would be detrimental to organizational performance. This is also consistent with the greater future-orientation of individuals from these countries.Alternatively, it is also possible that marketers from high Confucian dynamism countries might be sensitive to the shame arising out of inferior performa nce and might therefore believe that greater efficiency and profits are important at the cost of ethics and social responsibility. In other words, the effectuate of Confucian dynamism might be expected in some(prenominal) directions. disconcert I summarizes Hofstedes ranking of the four countries on five dimensions of culture (Hofstede, 1980 Hofstede and Bond, 1988).It is apparent that, in universal, Australians, Americans, and due south Africans are high(prenominal) on individualism and masculinity and lower on uncertainty avoidance and power distance than Malaysians. On Confucian dynamism, the USA and Australia rank very close. Although there is no ranking available for confederation Africa and Malaysia, Malaysians can be expected to rank higher because of a strong Chinese influence, especially in the business sector (Hong Kong and Taiwan rank first and second on Confucian dynamism).Based on individualism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance, Malaysian marketers would be expected to have lower perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility than marketers from Australia, South Africa, and the USA. Based on masculinity, it would be expected that Malaysian managers will have greater perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness than those from the other three countries, whereas based on Confucian dynamism it is only possible to hypothesize differences.Therefore, based on the cultural differences outlined above, we would expect Australian, Malaysian, US, and South African marketers to attach different levels of importance to ethics and social responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness. stinting environment differences. Countries also have different economic and business environments, including the legal environment and social expectations about business ethics in a devoted country.In developed countries (such as the USA and Australia), the business environment is typicall y characterized by powerful business enterprises, a legal environment aimed at eliciting ethical behaviors on the part of businesses, and societal expectations that businesses should be more ethical and socially responsible. These environmental forces may make the marketers in developed countries attach greater importance to the ethical and social responsibilities of their respective businesses. In developing countries, on the other hand (e. . Malaysia and South Africa), the business and economic environmental forces are still evolving and thusly the marketers perceived importance of business ethics and social responsibility may be lower relative to their counterparts in developed Country Australia Malaysia South Africa USA Power distance Individualism 36 104 49 40 (41) (1) (36-37) (38) 90 26 65 91 (2) (36) (16) (1) Masculinity 61 50 63 62 (16) (25-26) (13-14) (15) Uncertainty avoidance 51 36 49 46 (37) (46) (39-40) (43) Confucian dynamism 31 (11-12) n/a n/a 29 (14)How important are ethics? 137 no(prenominal)e a Ranks range from 1-53 for all dimensions except Confucian dynamism 1-20 Source Hofstede (1980) and Hofstede and Bond (1988) Table I. Scores (and ranks) for the four countries on Hofstedes dimensionsa European Journal of Marketing 35,1/2 138 countries. From another perspective, in developed countries the markets are likely to be more competitive, and therefore, issues of customer service and satisfaction might be relatively more important.Therefore, in making decisions, marketers from developed countries are less likely to take actions that are detrimental to the reputation of the company, fearing regulation as well as consumer dissatisfaction. In the context of this study, marketers from the USA and Australia should place greater importance on ethics and social responsibility as determinants of organizational effectiveness than marketers from South Africa and Malaysia. Differences in legal/political environment. In the Hunt and Vitell (1993) model, leg al/political environment is depicted as a variable influencing ethical decision making.The relationship between the legal environment and ethics has been recognized by many business ethics scholars. For example, Beauchamp and Bowie (1993, p. 4) noted that virtue is the ordinarys agency for translating morality into hard-core social guidelines and practices and stipulating offenses. DeGeorge (1990, p. 14) noted that Business is a social enterprise. Its mandate and limits are set by society. The limits are often moral, but they are also a great deal written into law. Dunfee (1996, p. 18) stated that the legal system is sometimes required to nurture or implement the moral preferences of society, particularly with reference to universal moral prohibitions against material harm. He also argued that where moral views have not converged toward a sufficiently broad consensus, the law may help to bring about a diverge in attitude. In the context of our study, these discussions imply th at the legal/political framework within a country can be expected to impact a managers perceptions about ethics and social responsibility.Business ethics scholars have also noted that the legal/political systems vary across countries (e. g. Vogel, 1992). In his analysis of the USA, westbound Europe, and Japan, Vogel (1992) noted that in spite of globalization, the norms of business (as well as business and academic interest) in ethics were substantially higher in the USA than in other advanced capitalist countries. He attributed this to the distinctive institutional, legal, social, and cultural environment in the USA.In the context of this study, differences can be expected in the legal/political environments in the USA, Australia, Malaysia, and South Africa. While in the USA the legal/political systems are relatively well developed (and in Australia to a certain degree), the regulatory environments in Malaysia and South Africa are evolving, and therefore, the existence as well as the specificity of laws may vary across the four countries. The importance of ethics is also influenced by the degree of law enforcement, where we also can expect differences across the four countries.While elaborate legal/political systems prevail for enforcement in the USA, they are relatively less prevalent (and to varying degrees) in Australia, Malaysia, and South Africa. Vogel (1992, p. 32) pointed out that even compared to other advanced countries, the enforcement of law in the USA is more stringent, and gave the hobby example, In America each new disclosure of business misconduct prompts a new wave of public indignation, accompanied by numerous articles n the business and popular press which bemoan the general decline in the ethical conduct of managers and seek to explain what went wrong in the near new-made case. This is frequently followed by Congressional hearings featuring politicians demanding more vigilant prosecution of white-collar criminals shortly thereafter, reg ulatory standards are tightened, penalties are increased, and enforcement efforts are strengthened. How important are ethics? 139It should be recognized that the potential influences of the legal/political environment are more complex than discussed here, because of the range of issues involved as well as the aspects of environment that cannot be measured directly, such as the enforcement of regulatory systems. However, differences exist between the four countries in the legal/political environment, which can be expected to influence managers perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility relative to organizational effectiveness.In the preceding paragraphs, country differences were analyzed based on three aspects (1) culture (2) economic development and (3) legal/political environment. Overall, based on cultural differences, we expect Australian, Malaysian, US, and South African marketers to attach different levels of importance to ethics and social responsibility in achie ving organizational effectiveness. Based on economic environment differences, we expect that marketers from the USA and Australia will place greater importance on ethics and social responsibility than marketers from South Africa and Malaysia.Given that legal and political environments tend to vary between the four countries, we also expect the managers from these four diverse countries to attach different levels of importance to ethics and social responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness. Thus, the following hypothesis was formulated H1 Due to differences in culture, economic development, and legal/political environment, there are differences in the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility among marketers in Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, and the USA.In analyzing country differences, it is evident that multiple aspects of country differences influence marketers perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility, at times in conflicting ways ( as in the effects of masculinity and individualism). Also, since this is the first attempt at investigating crosscultural variation in the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility as determinants of organizational effectiveness, there is a lack of companionship regarding the relative importance of differences in cultural European Journal of Marketing 35,1/2 140 dimensions.Consequently, it is not possible to hypothesize the direction of differences, only their existence. organizational ethical climate In the Hunt and Vitell (1986 1993) models, organizational ethical climate is included as a background variable that affects a marketers ethical decision making. Organizational ethical climate refers to the shared understanding regarding what is correct behavior and how ethical issues will be handled (DeConinck, 1992). It helps establish and maintain the standards that delineate the right things to do and the things worth doing (Jansen and Von Glinow, 1985).The ethical climate in an organization affects ethical attitudes and standards of individuals. An organization that seeks to foster an ethical environment will not only have a code of ethics, but also the willingness and commitment to enforce it. Managers consider modifying the morality of their actions not just because of stated organizational concern, but only when specific sanctions are attached for misconduct (e. g. Laczniak and Inderrieden, 1987). The contention that organizational pressures, and not individual moral deficiencies, account for unethical standards is held by several authors (e. . Ford and Richardson, 1994). Weeks and Nantel (1992) found that wellcommunicated codes of ethics led to higher ethical standards and superior job performance of salespeople in the USA. Consequently, marketers in companies with an ethical climate that encourages ethical and socially responsible behavior and that punishes unethical behavior would perceive ethics to be more important for organizational effectiveness. Research has shown that when ethical standards of an organization are widely shared, organizational success will be enhanced (Hunt et al. 1989). Relevant to this study, in a recent study of US marketers, Singhapakdi et al. (1995) revealed that marketers in organizations with high levels of corporate ethical values tended to assign a higher level of importance to certain elements of corporate ethics and social responsibility. Therefore, we hypothesize that H2 Irrespective of country, organizational ethical climate is positively related to managers perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility relative to different aspects of organizational effectiveness.Gender Gender is more often than not recognized as an important personal characteristic influencing an individuals ethical decisions. For example, Gilligan (1982) argued that men and women differ in their moral reasoning. In particular, men are more likely to adhere to the ethic of justice by emphasizing rul es and individual rights. Women, however, are more likely to adhere to the ethic of care by emphasizing relationships and compassion. In a recent meta-analysis, Franke et al. (1997) used data from more than 20,000 respondents in 66 samples nd revealed that women are more likely than men to perceive business practices as unethical. Although there has been no research directly investigating the effects of gender on perceived important of ethics and social responsibility, it has been incorporated in numerous marketing ethics studies. Based on the work of Gilligan (1982) and Franke et al. (1997), it can be argued that the ethic of caring exhibited by women would lead them to believe that taking actions in the interest of the customer would enhance company performance and would contribute to a perception of greater importance of ethics in organizational effectiveness.Thus, we would expect women to attach greater importance to ethics and social responsibility as determinants of organizati onal effectiveness. H3 Irrespective of country, women perceive ethics and social responsibility to be more important relative to different aspects of organizational effectiveness than men. Age Marketing ethics theories generally recognize personal characteristics as determinants of various aspects of a marketers ethical decision-making process (e. g. Ferrell and Gresham, 1985 Hunt and Vitell, 1986).Age could also directly influence an individuals ethical decision. According to Kohlbergs (1981) cognitive moral development theory, an individuals cognition, emotion, and judgment may change as he/she moves through stages of moral development. Given that an individual moves through stages of moral development and the changes are prerequisitely due to life experiences, intuitively one would expect a positive relationship between age and ethical behavior. In fact, Terpstra et al. (1993) have argued that people tend to become more ethical as they grow older.A good explanation is that as pe ople age they tend to become less concerned with wealth and advancement and more interested in personal growth (Hall, 1976). In other words, older marketers are likely to care for the long-term benefits (to organizational performance) of acting in an ethical and socially responsible manner. Accordingly, we would generally expect a positive relationship between a marketers age and his or her perception about the importance of ethics and social responsibility.H4 Irrespective of country, a marketers age is positively related to his/her perception of the importance of ethics and social responsibility relative to different aspects of organizational effectiveness. Methodology Sample A self-administered questionnaire was used as the data collection technique for all four groups of marketing practitioners. For the US and South African groups, national mailing lists of professional members of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and the South African Institute of Marketing How important are ethics? 141 European Journal of Marketing 35,1/2 142 vigilance were used as sampling frames.For the Australian sample, a mailing list of recipients of the Australian Marketing Institute magazine was used. For the Malaysian group, the sampling frame consisted of managers responsible for making marketing decisions for companies listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. The questionnaire was administered in English for all four samples. Because Malaysia and South Africa are members of the British Commonwealth, English is a well-understood language, particularly in the business setting. The numbers of respondents were 500 from Australia, 446 from the USA, 256 from South Africa, and 159 from Malaysia1.The response rates were 22. 7 percent (USA), 13 percent (South Africa), and 45 percent (Malaysia). Since questionnaires were not directly mailed to the sample in Australia, the response rate could not be assessed. The non-response deviate for the USA and South African samples was as sessed with an analysis of variance between the early and late respondent groups (Armstrong and Overton, 1977). There were no statistical differences among the two groups for either country2. The profiles of the respondents are summarized in Table II.They represent a range of age groups, gender, job titles, industry, and years of experience, with minor differences between the four sets of respondents. Age and gender were included in the analyses. Other variables (such as job title, education, and industry) were not included as control variables because educational systems, industry classifications, and job titles and functions vary from country to country. Measures Singhapakdi et al. (1995) developed a plateful for measuring managers perceptions about the importance of ethics and social responsibility (PRESOR) in organizational effectiveness.Seven of the 14 items from that scale were used, relating to specific aspects of organizational effectiveness such as issue quality, efficien cy, profitability, communication, long-term survival, competitiveness, and stakeholder satisfaction. Excluded items were statements such as Good ethics is good business and corporal strategy should include ethics and social responsibility, which do not address specific aspects of organizational effectiveness. The scale items used in the analyses are shown in Table III. The factor structures were found to be akin(predicate) across the four countries and the reliabilities were generally high3.It may be noted that the PRESOR scale has previously performed satisfactorily in terms of reliability, as well as content and predictive rigourousness (Singhapakdi et al. , 1995, 1996). Organizational ethical climate, gender and age. The corporate ethical values (CEV) scale developed by Hunt et al. (1989) was used in this study to measure organizational ethical climate. The scale was designed to reflect a composite of the individual ethical values of managers and both the formal and informal policies on ethics of the organization (Hunt et al. , 1989). The five-item CEV scale4 was developed to three broad-based perceptionsCharacteristics of respondents Gender Male Female Age group Under 30 30 to 39 40 to 49 50 and over 50 Education High school or less Some college Bachelors degree Masters degree Doctorate Othera Job title CEO/president/MD/director Marketing managers Others manufacture USA Wholesale or retail Manufacturer or construction Services Communications Advertising or public relations Marketing consulting Other Malaysiab Consumer products Diversified Construction Trading services Finance Properties Plantation Mining and primary resources nary(prenominal)es sample a b Australia (%) Malaysia (%) South Africa (%) USA (%)How important are ethics? 73. 0 27. 0 20. 0 35. 0 29. 0 17. 0 11. 0 15. 0 58. 0 15. 0 1. 0 37. 0 52. 0 11. 0 84. 0 16. 0 11. 0 39. 0 40. 0 10. 0 6. 0 10. 0 43. 0 24. 0 1. 0 16. 0 39. 0 30. 0 31. 0 80. 0 20. 0 4. 0 29. 0 40. 0 27. 0 6. 0 15. 0 30. 0 30. 0 19. 0 2. 0 44. 0 37. 0 19. 0 51. 0 49. 0 17. 0 37. 0 29. 0 17. 0 1. 0 6. 0 43. 0 43. 0 6. 0 47. 0 43. 0 10. 0 143 3. 0 10. 0 20. 0 33. 0 7. 0 17. 0 6. 0 37. 0 4. 0 3. 0 28. 0 11. 0 13. 0 3. 0 1. 0 7. 0 20. 0 25. 0 7. 0 1. 0 5. 0 35. 0 12. 0 17. 0 35. 0 9. 0 7. 0 18. 0 2. 0 Other educational qualifications include professional education in the Malaysian This categorization of industries was appropriate in the Malaysian context Table II. Profiles of respondents in Australia, Malaysia, South Africa and USA 144 European Journal of Marketing 35,1/2 Organizational effectiveness dimension Univariate tests Quality while output signal quality is essential for corporate success, ethics and social responsibility are not NS Communication communication is more important to the overall effectiveness of an organization than whether or not it is concerned with ethics and social responsibility 5. 1 0. 0001 Profits The most important concern for a firm is making profits, even if it means fold or breaking rules 5. 45 0. 0001 Competitiveness To remain competitive in a global environment, business firms will have to disregard ethics and social responsibility NS Survival If survival of a business enterprise is at stake, then you must forget about ethics and social responsibility 21. 25 0. 0001 Efficiency Efficiency is much more important to the firm than whether or not the firm is seen as ethical or socially responsible 14. 1 0. 0001 Stakeholder satisfaction If stakeholders are unhappy, nothing else matters 11. 19 0. 0001 Multivariate tests F based on Wilks lambda (21, 3,673 df) 5. 38 0. 0001 66. 43 28. 62 74. 24 49. 95 39. 79 29. 46 27. 17 0. 0001 0. 0001 0. 0001 0. 0001 0. 0001 0. 0001 0. 0001 Table III. Multivariate and univariate results Country Organizational culture Gender Age 17. 88 0. 0001 3. 68 0. 0552 8. 97 0. 0028 6. 46 0. 0112 17. 63 0. 00001 NS NS 2. 56 NS 0. 0535 NS NS NS NS NS 1) the extent to which employees perceive their ma nagers are acting ethically in their organization (item 1) (2) the extent to which employees perceive that managers are concerned about the issues of ethics in their organization (item 3) and (3) the extent to which employees perceive that ethical (unethical) behavior is rewarded (punished) in their organization (items 2, 4, and 5) (Hunt et al. , 1989). The CEV was measured using a nine-point Likert scale with 1= completely disagreeand 9= completely agree.For each respondent, the CEV score was obtained by summing all CEV items (with items 1 and 2 reverse-coded). A high CEV score means that the manager works in an organization with higher corporate ethical values. The similarity of factor structures of the CEV scale between the four countries was assessed to be moderate and the reliabilities of the scale were high5. The CEV measure has been used in the past (e. g. Hunt et al. , 1989 Singhapakdi et al. , 1995). Gender was measured as a dichotomous variable and age was measured in four categories.Results Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed using the seven PRESOR items as dependent variables, and the country of residence, organizational ethical climate, gender, and age as independent variables6. MANOVA results show that overall country of residence, organizational ethical climate, gender, and age significantly explain differences between marketers from the four countries in their perception of the importance of ethics and social responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness (F = 5. 38 based on Wilks Lambda, p 0. 001). H1 states that there are country differences in the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness. Univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) determine significant cross-country differences between marketers on all PRESOR items except output quality and competitiveness. For example, there are differences in the extent to which marketers from the four countries belie ve that the most important concern for a firm is making profits, even if it means bending or breaking rules (F = 5. 45, p . 001). Also, there are differences in the extent to which they agree with statements such as if survival of a business enterprise is at stake, then you must forget about ethics and social responsibility (F = 21. 25, p 0. 0001), efficiency is much more important to the firm than whether or not the firm is seen as ethical or socially responsible (F = 14. 91, p . 0001), and communication is much more important to the overall effectiveness of an organization than whether or not it is concerned with ethics and social responsibility (F = 5. 1, p 0. 0001). Therefore, there is support for H1 (average scores for marketers from the four countries on each of the seven items are given in Table IV). How important are ethics? 145 European Journal of Marketing 35,1/2 146 H2 states that the organizational ethical climate positively influences managers perceived importance o f ethics and social responsibility. In fact, results indicate it has a strong influence on all seven dimensions of PRESOR with F statistics ranging from 27. 17 to 74. 24 (with all p 0. 0001). Therefore, H2 is supported.Results also indicate gender differences in managers perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness on the quality, communication, profits, competitiveness, and survival dimensions, but not on the efficiency and stakeholder satisfaction dimensions (F statistics ranging from 3. 68 to 17. 88). Therefore, H3 is generally supported. Also, results related to H4 indicate that, in general, there are no age differences in the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness.Therefore, H4 is not supported. The lack of significance of age in influencing PRESOR is probably a reflection of the greater impact of environmental factors such as greater societal expectations and awar eness about ethical issues. Discussion and implications The current investigation into cross-country variation in perceptions of marketing professionals regarding the importance of ethics and social responsibility as determinants of business success has potential implications for international companies.In the international marketing context, cultural, economic, and other gaps between international buyers and sellers create the potential for conflicts of values, which in turn blank out smooth business interactions between the parties. Whether a marketing organization engages in exporting, importing, joint ventures, licensing agreements or fully owns an overseas operation, the scope exists for conflict of values, especially in the areas of marketing ethics and social responsibility. For example, in recent years, companies in the USA have faced public disapproval of the unethical practices of their overseas suppliers.As businesses all over the world progressively globalize their oper ations, it becomes necessary that they understand whether there are significant gaps between their ethical and social responsibility perceptions and their overseas partners. such(prenominal) perceptual gaps need to be systematically investigated and measures taken to reduce or, preferably, eliminate them in the interest of establishing enduring international business Organizational effectiveness dimension Australia 7. 67 6. 16 6. 93 7. 56 7. 22 6. 44 6. 82 Malaysia 7. 61 5. 27 6. 61 7. 27 5. 76 5. 12 5. 79 South Africa 7. 96 6. 40 7. 01 7. 71 7. 05 6. 26 6. 6 USA 7. 82 6. 23 7. 46 7. 69 7. 64 6. 72 7. 08 Table IV. Output quality Mean perceived Communication importance of ethics Profits and social responsibility scores on Competitiveness different dimensions of Survival Efficiency organizational Stakeholder satisfaction effectiveness relationships. This study identified three sources of gaps that can exist between marketers from different countries in terms of the perceived importanc e of ethics and social responsibility as determinants of organizational effectiveness. They are (1) Country differences in culture, economic development, and legal/ political environment. 2) Differences in organizational ethical climate. (3) Gender differences. Similarities and differences were found between countries in terms of the extent to which they find ethics and social responsibility to be important relative to some dimensions of organizational effectiveness. On two dimensions, output quality and competitiveness, there were no significant inter-country differences. It seems that output quality and competitiveness are universal business orientations exhibited by marketing executives, which is consistent with globalization of markets and the ensuant intensification of competition.International companies, therefore, may assume that their counterparts in different parts of the world will be as concerned with output quality and competitiveness (relative to ethical and social res ponsibility concerns). Hence, these two core business values can provide common bases for successful international negotiations and establishing long-term relationships, which are critical for success in the international business arena.While there are inter-country similarities on these two dimensions, significant inter-country differences were found with regard to other organizational effectiveness dimensions communications, efficiency, profits, survival, and stakeholder satisfaction. Based on the findings of our study, multi-national companies who transfer employees between these four countries can help them anticipate differences in perceptions about the importance of ethics and social responsibility relative to different aspects of organizational effectiveness.For example, Malaysian companies posting managers in Australia (or South Africa or the USA) might want to educate them about the environmental differences that lead to Australian managers placing greater importance on eth ics and social responsibility relative to profitability, efficiency, communication, survival, and stakeholder satisfaction. These perceptual differences can impact ethical attitudes and actions, and therefore, managerial expectations about overseas employees should be altered accordingly.Corporate managers should also give a thought to what can be done to overcome these differences in perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility. The content of ethics training programs can incorporate the findings of this study by developing scenarios and cases highlighting the tradeoffs between ethics and social responsibility, and specific aspects of organizational effectiveness, such as efficiency and stakeholder satisfaction. These scenarios can be all-inclusive by including cross-national differences in How important are ethics? 47 European Journal of Marketing 35,1/2 148 culture, economic development, and legal/political environment, as well as differences in perceptions about eth ics and social responsibility across countries. Organizational ethical climate positively influenced the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility across all four countries. Irrespective of the country, organizational ethical climate had a strong influence on all seven dimensions of organizational effectiveness vis-a-vis ethics A and social responsibility.Therefore, we can conclude that organizations from different countries with similar organizational ethical climates can find common ground on issues of ethics and social responsibility. Hence, international companies, when scouting for suitable partners in foreign markets, may look for overseas partners with similar organizational ethical values. This would ensure smoother business relations and interactions especially in the areas of ethics and social responsibility.Also, it is useful for international marketers to know that, in general, women perceive ethics and social responsibility to be more important in achievi ng organizational effectiveness than men, though there are no differences across age groups. This is particularly relevant given the increase in employment of women in the workplace. Limitations This study has some potential limitations. One concerns the limited number of factors investigated in our study. honest decision making is a very complex phenomenon, and exploring cross-cultural differences is even more difficult.For example, in addition to the variables we studied, marketing ethics theories have also specify moral philosophies, personal values, religion, professional environment, and organizational and industrial characteristics as important background factors underlying the ethical decision making of managers (e. g. Ferrell and Gresham, 1985 Hunt and Vitell, 1986). However, the scope of this study is limited to cultural dimensions, economic environment, organizational ethical climate, and selected demographic variables as explanatory factors.It should be pointed out that in this study, some important demographic variables, such as education, were not included because of a lack of conceptual equivalence, as explained in the next section. Another limitation concerns the samples analyzed in this study. Although four relatively diverse countries were studied, the findings can not be generalized to other countries with different cultural characteristics and levels of economic development. Future research avenues This research can be extended in many ways. As a first step, a non-directional hypothesis for country differences was presented.This was necessitated by the fact that this was the first study dealing with the investigation of cross-cultural variation in the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility as determinants of organizational effectiveness. Future research should investigate the direction of expected differences. A comprehensive framework modeling antecedents and consequences of the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility can be developed and tested. This will add another dimension to our understanding of ethical decision making.As pointed out earlier, one limitation of this study concerns its limited samples and, consequently, its limited generalizability. Therefore, there is a need to replicate this study using managerial samples from other countries with different cultural characteristics and/or levels of economic development. Given the complexity of the phenomenon under study, future research should investigate other determinants qualify in marketing ethics models, such as moral philosophies, personal values, religion, professional environment, and organizational and industrial characteristics.Among demographic variables, education could be an important determinant but was not included because of a lack of conceptual equivalence. In cross-cultural research, conceptual equivalence in terms of the meaning of research concepts, stimuli, and materials must first be established before any meaningful comparisons are made (Malhotra et al. , 1996). In our study, the US sample is predominantly business-educated, which might not be the case with the other three samples. In addition to differences in the educational background of the managers, the lack of conceptual equivalence can also be attributed to .The educational systems and curricula in the four countries being different. . Differences in the extent to which ethics is required to be emphasized in the curriculum content across different countries (for example, licensed business schools in the USA are required to incorporate business ethics into their curricula, and such requirements might exist to a greater or lesser degree in other countries). . Variation in the extent to which ethics is actually incorporated and emphasized in the curricula.Thus, it is not education per se, but the internalisation of ethics into educational curricula, the actual implementation, and its impact on the managers that is likely to influence their perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility. In the future, the cross-country differences in educational background of the respondents as well as the extent to which ethics is emphasized in education should be measured, and analyzed as a potential factor influencing a managers perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility.Conclusion To summarize, this research investigated whether marketers from Australia, Malaysia, South Africa, and the USA differ in their beliefs regarding the importance of ethics and social responsibility as determinants of organizational effectiveness. The study was based on an alternative approach to studying perceptions about ethical issues and problems in business. Traditionally cross- How important are ethics? 149 European Journal of Marketing 35,1/2 150 cultural researchers have evaluated ethical perceptions, attitudes, and intentions with regard to specific business/marketing practices involving ethical problems.Here , we investigate differences in the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility in relation to various aspects of organizational effectiveness such as quality, communication, profits, competitiveness, survival, efficiency, and stakeholder satisfaction. The results of this study are important because perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility has been shown to influence ethical intention, when managers are faced with an ethical situation (Singhapakdi, 1999). Results indicate that differences in the perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility among marketers from the four countries exist because of . ountry differences in culture, economic development, and legal/political environment . differences in organizational ethical climate and . gender differences. There are not any differences due to age. Overall similarities and differences among the four countries emerged on specific dimensions of business effectiveness. On the dimensions of output qu ality and competitiveness, there were no differences among the four countries. Inter-country differences were found on the dimensions of communication, efficiency, profits, survival, and stakeholder satisfaction.These findings regarding cross-cultural similarities and differences are useful in furthering our understanding and management of ethics and social responsibility in the international context. Notes 1. For attendant analysis using LISREL, a sample size of 159 was judged adequate because it is close to the recommended level of ten observations for every parameter estimated (Haire et al. , 1998). 2. For the Australian and Malaysian sample, the non-response bias based on early and late respondents could not be assessed as this information (i. e. dates when the questionnaires were received) was not recorded at the time of data collection. . The similarity of factor structures of the seven-item scale for individual countries was assessed with verifying factor analysis. Fit meas ures for individual countries, including chi-square per degree of freedom (range 1. 87-3. 32), GFI (0. 94-0. 97), AGFI (0. 890. 95), and CFI (range 0. 91-0. 96), for the four countries were high. The reliability of the seven-item scale ranged from 0. 73-0. 76 for the four countries. 4. The five items in the corporate ethical values scale were . Managers in my company often engage in behavior that I consider to be unethical. . In order to play along in my company, if is often necessary to compromise ones ethics. Top management in my company has let it be known in no uncertain terms that unethical behaviors will not be tolerated. If a manager in my company is discovered to have engaged in unethical behavior that results in personal gain (rather than corporate gain), he/she will be promptly reprimanded. . If a manager in my company is discovered to have engaged in unethical behavior that results in corporate gain (rather than personal gain), he/she will be promptly reprimanded. 5.The similarity of factor structures of the five-item CEV scale for individual countries was assessed with confirmatory factor analysis. Fit measures for individual countries, including chi-square per degree of freedom (range 2. 00-35. 23), GFI (0. 88-0. 99), AGFI (0. 63-0. 99), and CFI (range 0. 74-0. 99), for the four countries were moderate. 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