Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Women and Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

Reports on Saudi Arabia entrepreneurship suggest that women get high level support. In fact, the Kingdom has been leading in the Arab region in terms of regulatory reforms related to this field. This progression is a good indicator for the entire kingdom given that women can make significant contributions to the economy. The provision for an integrated study on the history and development of women entrepreneurship as well as the opportunities and challenges in place can be a great motivation to women entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia.Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on Women and Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Since the historical elections of two businesswomen to the board of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) in 2005, the history of women entrepreneurship became significant. These women who were also entrepreneurs changed the face of Saudi business and encouraged ec onomic participation of females. This participation led to other landmark developments such as the 2010 appointment of two businesswomen to the board of the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EPCCI), not to mention the election of a businesswoman to serve as the Vice Chair of JCCI for the first time (Vaid, 2011). Revisiting such entrepreneurial developments can be a great motivation to the upcoming women entrepreneurs. Hence, this research will review such histories to point out the circumstances that these successful women have gone through. The purpose of this project is to focus on the development of women entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia with an emphasis on why they chose to start their own businesses. It also identifies various opportunities and problems they face. A research conducted by Sadi and Al-Ghazali â€Å"doing business with impudence† in 2009 is the main motivating factor to research on women entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia (Sadi Al-Ghazali, 2 009). The major aim of their research was to find out the reasons why Saudi women chose to venture in business as well as an examination of the approaches they made. In Saudi and the Arab region, few researches have been conducted to investigate the trends, opportunities and problems encountered by women entrepreneurs and the motivation they have in running their own businesses. The major aim of the project is to undertake an empirical approach to investigate the potential opportunities and challenges which women entrepreneurs face when venturing in Saudi Arabia.Advertising Looking for proposal on gender studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More There is a pressing need to find ways through which upcoming entrepreneurs can be motivated to invest in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this project will consider exploring the historical trends which have made Saudi women to invest in business. Although there is substantial development in wo men entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia, Minkus-McKenna investigated ease of starting a business in MENA region and ranked Saudi Arabia below Israel. Although the country was ranked first in the ease of doing business, it is far much behind other MENA countries when it comes to women starting businesses. The rationale for conducting this research is that Saudi women are increasingly becoming active in entrepreneurship, yet they encounter unique challenges when compared to Saudi men. An investigation of Saudi laws relating to women reveal that they are to date restricted by custom to open their own businesses, buy property, drive and make investments in real estate. In fact, even the simplest duty of reporting a case to a police station must be accomplished by a male guardian (Abdullah, 2007, p.1). The so called women rights and freedoms are perceived to go against the very moral fiber of conventionalist culture and an ignorant departure from the teachings of Allah to the Muslim communi ty. When registering for a new business venture, the process is technically the same for both women and men entrepreneurs. The only law applying to ventures owned by women is to have all female workers in the assigned section of women with separate entrance and exit avenues; and a male manager in the section designated for men (Parker, 2007, p.1). Nonetheless, there have been changes in several decisions pertaining to the rights of Saudi women over the last several years. Until late, a female Saudi could not practice commercial activities without a male agent representing her in management and in handling the procedures for establishing a legal (Fakkar, 2007, p.1). However, it has been suggested that some Saudi women still complain that they require male agents to accomplish certain business tasks. These observations add to the motive to do the projected research. The project will start with reviewing the history of women entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia. This will offer the opportu nity to highlight key women figures and their motivation to business.Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on Women and Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The project will then focus on identifying the business opportunities available for Saudi women and the problems they will certainly face when investing as well as making recommendation on how to exploit the opportunities while solving the problems effectively. Thus, the project is a way of motivating and encouraging upcoming Saudi women to venture into new businesses. In the recent past, a new interest has emerged to encourage women entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia. In October 2010 for instance, the third exhibition for the Young Business Expo was specifically arranged for female Saudis in Jeddah at the International Exhibition Center (Monitor Group DSG, 2010). Learning institutions especially universities have engaged in activities th at encourage women to start business across the kingdom. International organizations such as Gulf Corporation Council have also embarked on a mission to support women especially in the gulf region where their involvement in business is very low. Therefore, as a response to these positive developments, this project is also intended to arm Saudi entrepreneurs with the necessary strategies to exploit business opportunities and solutions to the problems they will encounter when venturing. Methodology As noted before, this project is largely aimed at discussing the history and the presence of Saudi women entrepreneurs, investigating the business opportunities in place as well as the problems they will certainly encounter in venturing. It is also the aim of the study to recommend the best strategies to exploit the opportunities and most effective solutions to the problems. A review of the historical trends in women entrepreneurship is imperative because the field lacks enough theoretical and empirical perspectives which can give the necessary information on how to go about women growing their own businesses in Saudi Arabia. This lack of substantial information on women entrepreneurship calls for an inductive approach of research. Lichtman (2009) is of the opinion that an inductive approach should go with a qualitative research. In this project, the empirical intention is to investigate opportunities and problems encountered by Saudi women in growing their own businesses. It does not involve any measurable quality, hence makes the study qualitative.Advertising Looking for proposal on gender studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The justification for this study approach is that the project focuses on understanding the context within which it takes place and not focusing on a cause-and-effect relationship. It is imperative to avoid a rigid methodology in order to allow for an alternative explanation for what is going on. As Klenke (2008) links an inductive approach to positivism philosophy, the project will try to find out ways to enhance women entrepreneurship by analyzing the responses put forward by successful women entrepreneurs. Two methods will be adopted to collect data. The first method will be an online survey through questionnaires. This will ensure that the information collected from the participants is standard. The questionnaires will be administered online through email. This will make them available to the target groups who do not work at the same time and eliminate the risk of loss, mishandling and unintended access. An official at the Eastern Chamber of Commerce Center at Dammam will provide the needed direction to entrepreneurs to get their cooperation. However, the participants will send the filled questionnaire directly to a predetermined email address because some issues such as regulations and financing are sensitive to the government and funding institutions. The responses will be more favorable if the questionnaires are anonymous. The other method of extracting information will be drop-off and pick-up method that will still use questionnaires. A set of questionnaires will be handed to the business center in the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce. This method is adopted due to the proximity of the region to the researchers. This secondary source of information will act as the comparative tool for the outcomes of the Dammam case. This is important to ensure that the responses are varied and the sample represents the entire Saudi women population. Considering the size of the sample, it can be argued that certain suggestions may apply to a particular region and not the whol e kingdom. Therefore, a comparison is important to test this representation. Collins (2010, p.42) comments that a research project using an inductive approach is more likely to be concerned with the context in which activities are taking place and might mean that a small sample is more appropriate than a large sample. Therefore, the sample will consist of 75 Saudi women entrepreneurs; 50 will be from Damman and the rest from Jeddah. These participants will consist of Saudi women who have been successful in growing own businesses. They must be recognized by either the Eastern or Jeddah Chambers of Commerce and be willing to participate. Their businesses must also not be more than three years old. These conditions ensure that the project focuses on the current and relevant aspects under the study. Data Sources Primary Data Online survey through questionnaires Secondary Data Drop-off and pick-up questionnaires Literature Sources Publication on entrepreneurship history in Saudi Ara bia Saudi Government publications on women and business Publications on women entrepreneurship Publications on Saudi Arabia women entrepreneurship Publications on Saudi business policies Reports from business related agencies such as banks and markets Aspects of MBA Syllabus Used This project will apply modules involving various MBA aspects and in particular the courses in Entrepreneurship, finance and strategic management as well as Management of change. Reference Abdullah, S. 2007, Jowhara Al-Angari: strengthening Saudi Women’s rights. Web. Collins, H. 2010, Creative Research: The Theory and Practice of Research for the Creative Industries. AVA Publishing, Worthing. Fakkar, G. 2007, Removing obstacles to women’s business. Web. Klenke, K. 2008, Qualitative research in the study of leadership. Emerald Group Publishing, London. Lichtman, M. 2009, Qualitative Research in Education: A User’s Guide. SAGE, Los Angeles. Minkus-McKenna, D. 2009, Women entrepreneurs in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Web. Monitor Group DSG 2010, Growing aspirations: supporting women’s entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Web. Parker, M. 2007, Women ‘own’ some 1,500 companies. Web. Sadi, M. A. Al-Ghazali, M. 2010, ‘Doing business with impudence: a focus on women entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia.’ African Journal of Business Management, vol.4 no.1, pp. 1-11. Vaid, I. Y. 2011, ‘Saudi women and entrepreneurship opportunities in architecture and interior design.’ Middle East Studies Online Journal, vol.4 no.3, pp.445-459. This proposal on Women and Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia was written and submitted by user Stephanie Vargas to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Friday, March 20, 2020

Summer of the Monkeys Essays

Summer of the Monkeys Essays Summer of the Monkeys Paper Summer of the Monkeys Paper Summary: Summer of the Monkeys is a story about a 14 year old boy named Jay Berry who discovers about 28 loose monkeys running around in the prairie. Later in the story Jay Berry finds out the monkeys came from a crashed circus train and the owners are giving a reward to whoever can safely return them. Jay Berry then decides to catch the monkeys but soon realizes how hard it is and that he may not get the pony and . 22 caliber shotgun hes been wanting. When Jay Berry finally catches the monkeys ith the help of his grandpa, instead of spending the money on the pony and caliber, Jay Berry gives the money to his twin sister to fix her crippled leg and give her the option to finally be able to walk. Character Descriptions: Jay Berry Lee: ambitious, care free, clever Grandpa: happy, skillful, altruistic Rowdy: brave, cowardly, smart, giddy limbo: manipulative, sneaky, caring, self-less Discussion questions: 1. In the book summer of the monkeys Jay berry gives his reward money to his sister Daisy to fix her twisted leg, instead of buying the pony and . 2 caliber hes always dreamed of. If you were in this situation would you spend your money the same way Jay Berry did? Why or why not? 2. What does Jay Berry learn at the end of the book when he graciously gives his money to his sister instead of spending it on himself? 3. During this book Jay Berry spend his whole summer hunting down these monkeys and has, messed up numerous times, but has failed to give up. If you were in the same situation as Jay Berry would you give up after one shot? Or continue trying to atch the monkeys like Jay Berry? Key Passage: From chapter 17, page 267: Jay Berry: l cant buy a pony, grandpa, I said. If I do, id always feels guilty. Every time id climb on its back to go riding, ld think of my little sister and that old crippled leg of hers. Im going to give my money to her so she can go to the hospital and get it fixed up. Key Passage Explanation: (TS) The whole end of this book is all wrapped up in the Jay Berrys truthful words. L) Jay Berry has always wanted a beautiful paint pony, and when he finally has the oney to get one she has a nasty scar on her leg. (IQ) When Jay Berry sees his ponies crippled leg, he brings her back home and explains to his grandpa every time Id climb on its back to go riding, ld think of my little sister and that old crippled leg of hers. (Rawls 2 Jay Berry realizes what a shame it is tor the pony to go through that, and how bad i t must be for his sister; whose has a crippled leg her entire life. L) Jay Berry figures the right and logical thing to do would be to give his ister the money. (Q) Im going to give my money to her so she can go to the hospital and get it fixed up. Jay Berry tells his grandpa. (CM) Its really hard for Jay Berry to give all his hard earned money to Daisy to fix her leg, when he wanted the pony so bad. (CM) Jay Berry learned a very valuable lesson about thinking about others before yourself. (CS) At the end of the book Jay Berry is glad he gave the money to Daisy to fix her leg, he learns its more important to think of your family before yourself.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

How Freelance Indexers Help Your Book Succeed

How Freelance Indexers Help Your Book Succeed Can Non-Fiction Authors Create Their Own Indexes? Maria Sosnowski has been a freelance indexer for over ten years. In this article, she explains that hiring an indexer to create a professional index is something that many authors neglect:  they either don’t think about an index at all, or they decide that the book doesn’t really need an index. This is a mistake that could cost you access to entire markets.Libraries, Bookstores, and Amazon SalesDo you want your book to sell more easily? A good index is an important feature that librarians will look out for. Some libraries won’t consider purchasing non-fiction books without an index. Readers will often head to the back matter first and browse the index first to see what the book is about; those who want to look up something will go straight to the index. Without indexes, books are seen as less polished, which lowers the chance that a library system will select it for purchase.The same thing is true with bookstores. Buyers will skim the index to see if certain to pics are covered in the book. If they can’t see what they are looking for, they will move on to another title on the shelf. The lack of an index can result in a lack of sales.When you sell your book on Amazon, the Look Inside feature allows buyers to check out sample pages from your book, read the table of contents, and browse the index. A missing index is a missed opportunity to convince someone that your book is exactly what they’re looking for. A missing index is a missed opportunity to tell someone your book is what they’re looking for. And how would you like to optimize your online listing for searches? You can add â€Å"tags† with keywords and phrases to make it easier for Amazon to target the right audience, which will naturally increase book sales. While you can certainly try to create your own tags, an index will naturally contain most of these keywords and phrases. It’s an easy and effective hack! A search function can’t separate the wheat from the chaff. It can’t distinguish between an in-depth discussion and a passing mention of a term. It doesn’t capture synonyms where multiple words are used for the same concept. It doesn’t capture homographs where they same word has different meanings. It doesn’t consider context, either, so it would treat a discussion about Abraham Lincoln just the same as a sentence that uses Lincoln’s term in office to mark the timeline for the real topic.Adding value to your bookSearching provides too many hits, while not providing enough quality hits. There is no analysis in a search. Professional indexers analyze the text as they read, create a structured index with multiple access points into the material in the form of cross-references, and use subheadings to break down the page ranges about a particular topic. They can group related information and concepts together, even when varying terminology is used. Just as important, they will leave out extraneous information, casual mentions of a topic that lack any depth, duplicative material, and other things that would frustrate a reader who’s trying to learn more about your topic. In short, professional indexers raise the value of the book.To find out more about Maria Sosnowski and the other top freelance indexers, head to the Reedsy Marketplace and get a free quote today.If you have any experience about indexing to share, or questions to ask Maria, just drop a message in the comments below.

Sunday, February 16, 2020

In this paper, you will argue and explain ONE small detail of the Essay

In this paper, you will argue and explain ONE small detail of the story helps shapes ONE larger theme of the story - Essay Example The story shows how the hunger artist was caged not just physically but also spiritually. One of the most annoying things for the hunger artist was that the spectators lost interest and faith in his performances and talent. Many of them thought that his fasting was dishonest and thus there were many people form the audience who kept an eye at him. Moreover, there were night watcher groups as well that monitored him to ensure that he is not taking any nourishment. They annoyed him all night by pointing their pocket torch lights at his face. the author writes â€Å"Nothing annoyed the artist more than such watchers; they made him miserable; they made his fast seem unendurable; sometimes he mastered his feebleness sufficiently to sing during their watch for as long as he could keep going, to show them how unjust their suspicions were† (Kafka 57). The cage is a symbol used by Kafka which represents the alienation of the hunger artist from the society. The cage is where the artist performs and it creates a division between the spectators and the artist to prevent him from those who don’t understand him. The hunger artist has his own world inside the cage where he understands himself and respects his talent whereas the world outside is unable to respect and understand the artist's perfection and honesty. The author writes â€Å"For he alone knew, what no other initiate knew, how easy it was to fast. It was the easiest thing in the world. He made no secret of this, yet people did not believe him’’ (Kafka 58). The spectators did not believe him and thought he cheated on his fasts as there was no one to keep an eye on him all the time. The artist believes that what stops the spectators form believing him is their position which is outside the cage. These spectators don’t even appreciate him and thus the cage is a symbol to represent security and protection for the artist from these people who are unable to understand him. The hunger a rtist feels cheated and helpless which is why he has isolated himself in the cage. It is the place where he and his honesty reside. It is the part of the world where he feels separate from others and believes in himself. But it is not long when the attitudes of people and spectators broke him down. the audience showed that they admired him so much but in reality they hated him and were cruel, â€Å"And he looked up into the eyes of the ladies who were apparently so friendly and in reality so cruel, and shook his head, which felt too heavy on its strength-less neck† (Kafka 58). The cage also represents the relationship that the hunger artist had with himself. The artist felt that he was trapped and caged within himself. His fasts were directly affecting his body which is why he was physically constrained. He was trapped in his body and even if he wished to escape from it, it was only through death. His fasts were merely a way through which he attempted to escape his skin. Fast ing was associated with his divinity and death. In the end he gives up his life to escape his body unable to do anything else as his body had limitations. This was an achievement for him as this was his idea of perfection. The hunger artist believed in himself and his perfection, he set out leaving his manager and â€Å"So he took leave of the impresario, his partner in an unparalleled career, and hired himself to a large circus; in order to spare his own feelings he avoided reading the

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Density Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Density - Lab Report Example By means of displacement, the difference in the initial and final volumes of liquid used would be the volume displaced through the solid object plunged into the water, and, therefore, it serves as the volume of the material itself. At this stage, given the mass, it may be hypothesized that the mass of pennies divided by the volume displaced or occupied which causes rise in the water level within the graduated cylinder yields to the penny’s density. Methods and Materials Type of Metal Used: Early-1985 penny with an accepted density value of 7.18 g/ml. Initially, a 50-ml graduated cylinder was filled with 20.00 ml of water, and it was carefully recorded. The initial mass of cylinder and water (combined) was acquired using a top-loading balance and then recorded as initial reading for the cylinder-balance setup. Pennies were dropped by increments of two where the new volume was read and the new mass was measured using the same balancing equipment each time. This step was carried out repetitively to make a total of five data sets, which includes noting of final volumes along and masses (7th and 8th columns) through addition of previous differences with actual volumes and masses, correspondingly. There were ten pennies dropped all in all, and in order to obtain the experimental value of density for each set of pennies, the following equation was applied: Density, ? = [ Mass(2) - Mass(1) ] / [ Volume(2) - Volume(1) ] (in g/ml) Results Initial Volume of Water (ml): 20.0 ml_ Initial Mass of Cylinder + Water: 105.06 g_ density, g/ml % difference Rep A 5.03 29.94 Rep B 9.82 36.77 Rep C 10.06 40.11 Rep D 5.00 30.36 Rep E 9.98 39.00 Sample Calculations (using Reps A & B of the table): Actual Volume = 21.5 ml - 21.0 ml = 0.5 ml Actual Mass = 115.0 g - 110.09 g = 4.91 g Density = Actual Mass / Actual Volume = 4.91 g / 0.5 ml = 9.82 g/ml Final Volume = Actual V1 + Actual V2 = 1.0 ml + 0.5 ml = 1.5 ml Final Mass = Actual M1 + Actual M2 = 5.03 g + 4.91 g = 9.94 g Then us ing the given theoretical value = 7.18 g/ml and the formula % difference = | 9.82 - 7.18 | / 7.18 x 100% = 36.77% volume, ml mass, g 20 105.06 21 110.09 21.5 115 22 120.03 23 125.03 23.5 130.02 Based on the 3rd and 4th columns of the first table, beginning with a volume (water) of 20.0 ml and a mass (cylinder + water) of 105.06 g, the amounts (volume and mass) of each succeeding row are subtracted from the corresponding amounts of the preceding row to generate the 5th and 6th column outputs showing actual entries specific for every two-penny increment. Since these densities appear to be significantly different as compared to the literature value of 7.18 g/ml, the average density was estimated from the graph of mass vs. volume of pennies. Considering the best-fit line drawn (via MS Excel program) fairly between the plotted coordinates, the slope would be 7.186 g/ml according to the resulting equation m = 7.186v – 39.36, so that percent difference equals (7.186 - 7.18) / 7.18 x 100% or 0.0836%, which is appreciably lower than the % difference solved individually, as shown prior. Discussion / Conclusion Though the outcomes reflect inconsistent values of density on the basis of the actual volumes and actual masses which had been arrived at through the displacement method,

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Management of Supply Chains Article Review

Management of Supply Chains Article Review INTRODUCTION This paper critically reviews the journal article titled as â€Å"performance management in supply chains: logistics service providers’ perspective† which published in international journal of physical distribution logistics management. Critical review is done using bullet point approach with respect to following chapters. Introduction Literature review Methodology Analysis and discussion Conclusion, contributions, limitations and future research References Introduction Chapter Research is constructed by incorporating Performance management concepts into Supply chain management process. This study published in International Journal of Physical Distribution Logistics Management Journal Vol. 42 No. 3 in the year 2012. This study was forwarded for publication in March 2011 but it was revised 4 times and finally accepted in November 2011. Latest literatures are used to construct this study. However, most interesting thing is author used her previous 5 studies (Forslund and Jonsson, 2007; Forslund et al., 2009; Forslund and Jonsson, 2009; Forslund, 2010; Forslund and Jonsson, 2010) in to this research to develop most of the concepts. As a result, certain justifications behind choosing certain concepts are not given (conflict of interest) that is also highlighted in following sections. Author primarily used the literature related to supply chain management highlighting its process and importance to increase the weight of this study. Author largely used the term logistics service providers (LSPs) and their contribution towards this supply chain management process such as transportation and warehousing, and supplementary services (ex, order administration and track-and-trace services). After highlighting the nature of LSPs operation, author brought performance management concept to evaluate the Logistics performance in supply chains, such as lead-time, flexibility and on-time delivery. Author clearly highlighted the necessity of performance management to improve the logistic performance, which ultimately encouraged author to conduct this study. After credibly constructing the concept and research gap, the study poses the following research questions: RQ1. How are LSPs handling the performance management process? RQ2.With what scope of the supply chain do LSPs handle the performance management process? Author identified the research gap by claiming that study related to performance measurement in supply chain from the perspective of LSPs is scarce even though studies related to perspective of customer and supplier are done in different aspect. Due to this scarcity, author formulated an additional research question: RQ3. Which obstacles for supply chain performance management are perceived by LSPs? To find answers for all above three research questions, author formulated the aim as â€Å"to explore the handling of the performance management process and its obstacles from the perspective of LSPs†. Author used clear title for this article to communicate readers to what this article about. Hypothesis were not created in this article, instead formulated three research questions to give clear direction towards achieving research aim. If hypothesis were created for formulated three research questions, which would have made the researcher and reader more curious about the research result. Due to exploratory nature of research questions, author wisely chose and adopted following philosophies and research paradigms in to this study, which however not directly mentioned in this journal article. Research Type: Descriptive Role of theory in research: Inductive Epistemological orientation: Interpretivism Ontological orientation: Constructionism This paper mainly focuses on the LSPs’ key account customers and on their most important service (road freight). Overall, sufficient background knowledge is given with proper content. Study makes descriptions from the perspective of LSPs with the encouragement of studies made from customer perspective by Hertz and Alfredsson (2003) and Maloni and Carter (2006). Even though, author claimed that plenty of studies are been conducted from the perspective of supplier and customer, references of such studies are not highlighted in this study. Literature Review Chapter Literature review mainly provided the understanding of concepts such as Performance management, Supply chain management, Logistics service providers and Obstacles. Author properly constructed the concept by highlighting positive and negative findings of previous studies. The term â€Å"LSP† is used throughout this study without a validation, although several synonyms are available for this term such as carriers, forwarding companies, transportation companies, third-party logistics providers and logistics service companies. This research mainly used performance management process model suggested by Forslund and Jonsson (2007) which consists 5 steps such as selecting performance variables, defining metrics, setting targets, measuring and analysing. The literature on Performance management (Kaplan and Norten, 1992; Otley, 1999; Epstein et al., 2000; Ittner and Larcker, 2001) offers various modern integrated models to measure the performance of the organisations, which include Balanced Scorecard (BSC), Business Excellence Model (BEM), Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and Capability Maturity Model (CMM), which are failed to highlight in this study. Moreover, being an author of both this study and as well as in performance management model of Forslund and Jonsson (2007), sufficient justification is required behind choosing this model in this study which creates the situation of conflict of interest. Most of the logistic performance variables are identified from the study solely based on Wilding and Juriado (2004). However, author used multiples studies to support remaining steps of performance management process model. After bringing performance management literature, study shifted the focus to supply chain and highlighted the importance of incorporating performance management model into broad supply chain scope by bringing stacks of previous studies such as (Brewer and Speh, 2001; Busi and Bititci, 2006; Morgan, 2007; Forslund and Jonsson, 2007). Author managed to find out the various obstacles to use performance management model in supply chain with extensive literature. Obstacles such as the lack of understanding, competence and knowledge, difficulties in dealing with performance outside one’s own areas of responsibility, difficulties in developing a collaborative culture with supply chain partners, and lack of trust, conflicting priorities and targets are mainly discovered. Methodology Chapter When considering the research aim and the nature of this research, it is obvious that this study needs careful observation of human interactions and behaviours. According to Smith et al. (2002), ‘Interpretivism’ is one of the philosophies where the reality is determined by people rather than by objective and external factors. Therefore, interpretivism research philosophy is adapted in this research. However, such justification is not mentioned in this research. As per author, â€Å"case study approach† is selected under qualitative method due to high availability of survey based LSP research which justification is not convincing enough on choosing the research approach. Yin (1994) states case study research is useful when, a ‘how’ or ‘why’ questions are being posed, when the investigator has little control over events and when the focus is on a existing event within a real life context. Hence, highlighting such literature behind choosing case study approach would have provided ideal justification. As per Transport Intelligence (2009), mainly three cases (logistic organisations) are selected from Sweden due to their high domination in Swedish LSP market. Three cases are named as LSP1, LSP2 and LSP3 and below table shows the glance of interview respondents. Empirical data collections are carried out through structured interview guide with open-ended questions, which strengthened the construct validity of the study. Mainly Telephone calls of 1 hour to 2 hours and email modes are used to conduct interviews due to high restriction of getting appointments and have meetings with senior level managers. Among three cases, author managed only in LSP 3 to interview respondents who directly deal with performance management process. LSP 2 and LSP1 respondents were partially involved with performance management process due to their different functional activity. Due to high access in LSP 3 organisation, author managed to interview 4 respondents where in other two organisations (LSP 1 and LSP 2), only two respondents were interviewed which resulted high information inflow only from LSP3 that created some biased situation. The structured interview guide eases to develop interview transcript and coding. Hence, cross case comparisons and pattern matching are used as analysis methods. In the methodology, author could have defined and maintained the same number of respondents from selected cases with similar designations to interview and collect data, which could have improved content validity. Analysis and Discussion Chapter With cross-case analysis, author managed to discover how LSPs handling the performance management process. Mainly process such as selecting performance variables, defining metrics and capturing real time data shows plenty of similarities among selected cases that support that performance management process is existed in LSP arena. However, some differences are also found in performance management step such as target setting, measuring, report making and analysing. By highlighting these, author could have emphasised more on the requirement of structured model to maintain the uniformity among LSPs to yield the benefits of performance management that might have added more weight in to this study. The study reveals that having a broad supply chain scope, which is sharing performance related activities among the partners (Suppliers, LSPs and customers) that has the best capabilities of improving efficiency in supply chains. Author identified obstacles such as lack of understanding and knowledge; poor capabilities for incorporating performance metric norms and lack of IT solutions for performance report creation, which are preventing to incorporate performance management in supply chain. The findings are steadily answered the established three research questions that have the proper flow and it supports each other too. Conclusion, Contributions, Limitations Future Research Chapter The author has successfully achieved the research aim through literature and empirical data that is to explore the performance management process and the obstacles for performance management in supply chains from LSPs’ perspective. However, establishing RQ2 that is to find out what scope of the supply chain do LSPs handle the performance management process, which seems bit irrelevant to the research aim. Hence, author could have omitted this and pay more attention on other two questions. In terms of research implication, study mainly contributes to performance management theory from two aspects that are by bringing exploratory knowledge of performance management into supply chain process and its difficulty of usage from the perspective of LSPs. Author acknowledged that due to exploratory nature of this study, prevented the possibility of generalising the findings outside the sample and whatever findings are revealed in the study that certainly can be applied in above three organisations. However, if author conducted a pilot survey prior to case study in Swedish LSPs to check the familiarisation on performance management process in supply chain, this could have generalised at least within Sweden. Author recommended further research on performance management in supply chain from customer perspective. However, further it can be extended to the perspective of other business micro environment such as supplier, employee, competitors, shareholders and media) References Chapter Harvard reference system is used throughout this research. Consistency of the research is presented especially in citations. Author captured most of the references from reliable source like Journal Articles, which correctly presented in bibliography section. Using plenty of author’s previous studies in to this research creating biased situation. __________________________________________________________ Word count: 1889 words REFERENCES Brewer, P. C. and Speh, T. W., 2001. Adapting the balanced scorecard to supply chain management. Supply chain management review, March/April, 48-56. Busi, M. and Bititci, U., 2006. Collaborative performance management: present gaps and future research. International journal of productivity and performance management, 55 (1), 7-25. Epstein, M., Kumar, P. and Westbrook, R., 2000. The drivers of customer and corporate profitability: modelling, measuring and managing the causal relationships. Advances in management accounting, 9 (1), 43-72. Forslund, H. and Jonsson, P., 2007. Dyadic integration of the performance management process: a delivery service case study. International journal of physical distribution logistics management, 37 (7), 546-567. Forslund, H. and Jonsson, P., 2009. Obstacles to supply chain integration of the performance management process in customer-supplier dyads: the buyers’ perspective. Journal of operations production management, 29 (1), 77-95. Forslund, H. and Jonsson, P., 2010. Integrating the performance management process of on-time delivery with suppliers. International Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications, 13 (3), 225-251. Forslund, H., 2010. ERP systems’ capabilities for supply chain performance management. Industrial management data systems, 110 (3), 351-367. Forslund, H., Jonsson, P. and Mattsson, S. A., 2009. An order-to-delivery process performance model for delivery scheduling environments. International journal of productivity and performance management, 58 (1), 41-53. Hertz, S. and Alfredsson, M., 2003. Strategic development of third party logistics providers. Industrial marketing management, 32 (1), 139-149. Ittner, C. and Larcker, D., 2001. Assessing empirical research in management accounting: A value-based management approach. Journal of accounting and economics, 1 (32), 349-410. Kaplan, R. S. and Norton, D. P., 1992. The balanced scorecard- measures that drive performance. Harvard business review, 70 (1), 71-79. Maloni, H.J. and Carter, C.R., 2006. Opportunities for research in third-party logistics. Transportation journal, Spring, 23-38. Morgan, C., 2007. Supply network performance measurement: future challenges?. International journal of logistics management, 18 (2), 255-273. Otley, D., 1999. Performance management: a framework for management controls systems research. Management accounting research, 10 (4), 363-382. Smith, M. E., Thorpe, R. and Lowe, A., 2002. Management research: an introduction. London: Sage publications. Wilding, R. and Juriado, R., 2004. Customer perceptions on logistics outsourcing in the European consumer goods industry. International journal of physical distribution logistics management, 34 (8), 628-644. Yin, R. K., 1994. Case study research: design and methods. 2nd ed. New York: Sage publications. Prepared by Mohamed Aashik 1

Friday, January 17, 2020

Checkpoint: Patient Self-Determination Act

CheckPoint: Patient Self-Determination Act Discuss, in 250 to 300 words, the effect of the Patient Self-Determination Act on health care delivery. Consider how you think records management procedures have had to respond to this piece of legislation. In accordance with Federal Law, the Patient Self- Determination Act provides every competent adult and emancipated minor to be informed that he or she has the right to make his or her own decisions, including the right to decide what medical care or treatment to accept, reject, or discontinue. The effect of the Patient Self-Determination Act has given each patient the right to choose what he or she believes what is best for him or her. Advance directives protect his or her right when making a decision. The act also protects the health care institutions when the agency has to decide what is best for the patient. Advance directives are: Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, in case the patient becomes mentally incapacitated. A draft for a durable power of attorney will be written. This is a document appointing an agent to act for an individual in the event of incompetence and take effect immediately. The agency can not make the decision for the patient unless he or is can not make the decision. Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order, the patient request not to be given CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) if the patient heart stop or stop breathing. Living Will, a legal document explaining the medical treatments or life support treatments he or she wants in case the patient becomes terminally ill. Organ or Tissue Donor, the patient has authorized the hospital to remove organs and tissues. Medical suitability for donation is determined at the time of death. The Law of Advance Directives Legal Documents Can Ease End-of-Life Decisions by Karen Markus http://www. scu. edu/ethics/publications/iie/v8n1/advancedirectives. html