Illiteracy Among African Americans Essay

Abstract The high rate of illiteracy is a major problem in the United States. Although there have been programs and initiatives started to eradicate this problem, illiteracy still plagues millions of Americans. Out of all ethnic groups, African Americans have a higher illiteracy rate. Within this project, the causes of illiteracy are revealed and viable solutions to this on-going problem will be discussed. Illiteracy Among African-Americans African-American adults do not have the ability or proper skills to read, write, or speak English correctly. African-Americans have the lowest level of literacy rates in the United States. The history of literacy among African- Americans depicts the levels of literacy today. Until the Civil War, it was illegal to teach Blacks to read and write. â€Å"Compulsory ignorance† as coined by writer Brent Staples relates to the reality that â€Å"Black† literacy was obstructed as a matter of law for more than a century. Until after the Civil War, it was a crime to teach â€Å"Blacks† how to read and openly literate â€Å"Blacks† were seen as destructive and even dangerous. † The stereotype of African-American adults are considered to be part-time workers, unemployed, and non-educated illiterate people. These African-American adults are individuals who make our society incapable of succeeding because of living their life on drugs or being violent. Some African-Americans choose to follow the road of poverty in the wrong direction by being caught in armed robbery, abuse, and prison. According to the 2000 US Census of Population, 15% of African-American in the poverty level are below the 8th grade reading level. An illiteracy study which focused on African- American communities to research the job opportunities, proper education, and drug usage in the urban area stressed that lifestyles have a dramatic influence on academic levels. The urban community stresses the issues of abuse, pregnancy, drugs, and violence, but few want to help the illiterate. African Americans need to have power and motivation to educate themselves and children at home. African Americans need to focus on homework, study habits, reading comprehension skills, and written English skills. African Americans need to invest in themselves and children having the power and education to read. While the slave experiences of African Americans make experiences markedly different from other citizens, we must move forward and utilize the system. It is time to demand more from our public education systems and more from us as parents and communities. Illiteracy among African Americans was people considered middle and low class families. These are African Americans with money to invest properly, productive in education, and have low paying jobs. In the South illiteracy among African American people rate at ages ten and over from the percentage level of 76. 2%-10. 7. Illiteracy among African American makes rate at ages 20 to 64 from the percentage level of 50. 0% to 9. 6%. During the 1870 to 1979 illiteracy has been a problems throughout African American culture. The government was concern whether African Americans were capable of keeping up with modern functions in the society. The literacy rate for blacks rose from 38. 2 percent in1880 to 71. 9 percent in 1910, whereas the literacy rate for whites rose only 1.9 percentage points from its 1880 level of 93. 2 percent. Literacy among African Americans has improved statistically showing things have changed in the 20th century. Individuals were capable of receiving jobs in the Civil War period compared to the African Americans then. The characteristics of African Americans ages 55-64 were tested on three documents of illiteracy were prose, documents, and quantities skills. Each African Americans within this age range scored below average. African American with a high school diploma or GED only scored poorly on the quantities literacy test. African Americans with illiteracy have lower paying jobs like service or labor, craft, and service occupation. These African Americans with low income rates are also receiving help from the government. African American illiteracy is common because researchers feel; this ability is from cognitive and physical effects of age. Researchers feel African American are not expand to assessments of printed material written. African Americans proficiencies results showed thirty-eight percent of them scored high on there examine. The United States has specialized a program in the schools, recreation centers, and after school programs from literacy. African Americans with illiteracy receive basic skills courses to enhance their reading, writing, and English skills. The African American programs illiteracy that supports the group by designing fundamental speaking and educational classes. These classes will better prepare and motivate African American to get their GED and workforce training. African Americans have the most students of 76% or more enrolled in these classes for illiteracy. African Americans also have outreach programs for illiteracy throughout the region. African American regions are processing new strategies for people below average functioning under level number one literacy. There are state officials, business leaders, and human resources who promote assessment class to determine the adequate needs for African Americans needing more help with illiteracy. The African Americans who developmental skills are not processing the schools and recreation centers conduct remedial educational opportunities for those reading skills are below average. The government has conducted two National Assessment of Adult Literacy and The National Center for Educational Statistics. The federal government has provided funds to assist states in establishing and expanding basic education programs for individuals age 16 and over who have not completed high school. The type of services and providers funded under federal legislation has changed a number of times since it began nearly 40 years ago. Originally established under the Adult Education Act of 1966, the adult education program is currently governed by the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), which is Title II of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998, as amended (P. L. 105-220). WIA makes the adult education program part of a new â€Å"one-stop† career center system that includes many federally funded employment and training programs. The government was trying to examine whether illiteracy is arbitrary or misleading to society. The government also was trying to develop a system where African -Americans’ English language skills through literacy would change tremendously. The regions are always stereotyping on whether the lower class of succeeding in the socioeconomic groups. African Americans are not able of reading books, newspapers and interact with their environment. African Americans are put down because their illiteracy habits are poor in average. Some African Americans illiteracy knowledge of phonics and vocabulary is on a elementary level. African American illiteracy is high in change because other ethnicities have a stronger and diverse chance of having a better job. African Americans are not pushed to get ahead because they are motivated to look to the future. African Americans are not successful because they do not have self-confidence or the proper attitudes to care about being illiterate. African Americans value the least concern for being illiterate. African Americans cultural identity is a problem for people with no social skills. African Americans have had to suffer by competing with other culture with illiteracy. African American culture of having a different sense of belief in religion affects people ways of being are very skeptical about advancing with education. Some researchers feel African Americans are failures to society. There are African Americans who prefer to be illiterate because of the mismatch languages advise throughout the country. African Americans and Hispanics are compared to each other because they are behind on the level of grade four. A quarter million of Africans Americans were treated for illiteracy. African Americans educational programs were taught to read (book, newspaper, and application) and write (proper grammatical papers). African Americans illiteracy rates went down five percent every year. Researchers receive notes of reading ability fail tremendously in directives, forms, education, and informed consent skills (Hunter & Harman). Their theories on African Americans were concern with adequate informational literacy. Hunter and Harman wanted to examine the autonomy of the informed consent of literacy. These researchers believe the rapid increase of literacy is caused by critical implication. Also, the researchers discovered literacy could be modified the health reasons. The National Adult Literacy programmed examines the process of comprehending newspaper articles, employment forms, and quantities skills. The NAL realizes the lowest of African American literacy skills will limit competing skills. The African Americans having two levels below average had disabilities and mental problems. Some had physical and disable needs to have full activity to think properly. Also, the NAL realized the older compared to middle age adults. Illiteracy and health explore different links between direct measures of learning. Researchers studies the process of education had influence the ability of illiteracy (Cumming, Smith, & Shrestha1994-2004). Illiteracy has access information and navigates in literate environments to process cognitive and linguistics process. Some illiterate African Americans access crucial information for health care without taking medication. Researchers feel different readability strategies measure out their health reasons. In conclusion the idea to try to change illiteracy for African Americans is very important. It is possible to recognize, focus, and understanding of learning. These studies are process to decrease the rate of African American knowledge of illiteracy. African Americans need to start early receiving the proper need or help. African Americans need to understand that having a deficiency is nothing to be ashamed of. African Americans to support their group by learning to read, comprehend, write, and speak correct English.

Byzantine and Roman Empire Art Essay

The Byzantine Empire was the new center for the Roman Empire, but did it directly inherit the art traditions from the Roman Empire? Give examples in your response. The Byzantine people considered themselves as the heirs to the Roman Empire (Online Lecture) so this also meant that they inherited the art traditions of the Roman Empire. Their sculptures stayed with the classical style of the ancient Greek art but a new aesthetic and iconic type art began to develop. The new aesthetic art was created by the Christians to fulfill their religious needs. Byzantine art favored a more symbolic approach to religion by depicting frontal figures against a gold background and the idea the subject(s) might be floating. The subject matters in this art consisted largely of the combined religion and imperial power. This can be seen in the mosaic below (Kleiner, 137) of Justinian and the Bishop Maxinianus. The mosaic depicts Justinian, ruler of the time, in a purple rob and a halo over his head. He also holds the golden paten, helping to emphasize the balance between religion and power. He is flanked by members of the clergy on his left with the most prominent figure the Bishop Maximianus holding a golden cross. To Justinian’s right appear members of the imperial administration identified by the purple stripe, and at the very far left side of the mosaic appears a group of soldiers, one holding a shield bearing the Christogram . The presences of icons, portable paintings portraying Christ, Mary or saints, were also important during this time. They were more religious than aesthetic in nature: especially after the end of iconoclasm, they were understood to mark the unique presence of the figure depicted by means of a likeness to that figure maintained through carefully maintained canons of representation. The Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George (Kleiner,138) is a good example of an icon. This icon is created on wood, and represents the Virgin enthroned, supporting the Child Christ in her lap and flanked by two Saints, St. Theodore on the right and St. George on the left, both standing in formal pose. Two Archangels are pictured behind the central group, their wide-open eyes staring upwards to heaven. Portrayed frontally, on a slightly larger scale than the rest of the figures composing the icon, the Virgin is seated on a throne, dressed in a dark blue. Her feet dangle of the edge of the chair. Realism is reflected in the Virgin’s white and pink face, in her accentuated features and large dissimilar. The Christ Child is pictured seated in his mother’s lap. So the inheriting of the Roman Empire traditions of art only helped in the refining of the Byzantine esthetic and iconic art forms.

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder Essay Bipolar Disorder Essay: Finding the Light in the Dark Affecting nearly one percent of the population of the United States, bipolar disorder has quickly become one of the leading forms of mental illness (Spearing). While advancements in medical science and technology have allowed researchers and physicians to understand its elements more clearly, the effects of bipolar disorder are tragic and often deadly. Often the negative results occur due to a lack of proper diagnosis: some seventy-five percent of bipolar cases go untreated (Spearing). Through proper education and public awareness, this serious disease can be properly diagnosed, treated and possibly cured. Bipolar disorder, as defined by the Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, is a mood disorder that causes a person to suffer extreme emotional changes and shifts in mood. Previously known as manic-depressive disorder, bipolar disorder causes alternate periods of mania and depression. To fully understand the effects of this disease, it is important to comprehend the meanings of mania and depression. Merriam-Websters Dictionary defines mania as excitement manifested by mental and physical hyperactivity, disorganization of behavior, and elevation of mood. Depression, on the other hand, is defined as a psychiatric disorder characterized by an inability to concentrate, insomnia, loss of appetite, feelings of extreme sadness, guilt, helplessness and hopelessness, and thoughts of death. (Merriam-Webster). The combination of the two results in emotional chaos. Of all psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder is the most common, affecting between one and two million Americans (Spearing). While it affects males and females equally, there are a few distinctions that can be made about those who do have it. Amongst men, early onset bipolar disorder is more frequent while there is higher rate of rapid cycling, mixed states, and cyclothymia in women (Wurztel 28-31). Also, according to one survey, an estimated 59% of bipolar patients experienced their first symptoms when they were children or adolescents (Harakas G2). Studies show that bipolar disorder occurs in 1% of all age groups (Bipolar Survivor). Evanston Northwestern Hospital claims, There is some indication that the incidence of bipolar disorder may be increasing. While it is important to understand that bipolar disorder is a disease separate from the numerous other types of mental illnesses, it is also necessary to differentiate between the four different types of the disorder. The first type, Bipolar I, is the most often discussed. People who suffer from this type of bipolar disorder experience extreme periods of mania coupled with depression (Bailey). During the extreme times of mania, Bipolar I patients engage in activities that are exceptionally dangerous and eccentric yet they believe that their actions are normal. Such activities may include spending outrageous amounts of money, investing in business schemes without any research or knowledge of the investment, driving recklessly, and engaging in sexual promiscuity (Bipolar Survivor). Also, during advanced mania, all touch with reality is completely lost resulting in delusions and hallucinations (Bailey). With this type of bipolar disorder, there seems to be an abundant amount of energy with almost a complete lack of sleep (Bailey). The second, and most common, type of bipolar disorder is known as Bipolar II. With this type, people experience recurrent bouts of depression without the psychotic episodes of mania. Unlike Bipolar I patients, they suffer from brief spells of hypomania during which they feel euphoric and have a great amount of self-confidence and energy (Bailey). While it may appear that hypomania is similar to general happiness, Dr. Hagop S. Akiskal, a senior advisor at the National Institute of Mental Health, states that hypomania is a recurrent condition; happiness is not (qtd. in Fireman 1470). Generally, this type of bipolar disorder is the mildest form of the disease and is the easiest to treat. Medicated mania, or Bipolar III, is the third type of bipolar disorder. The main difference between this type and the others is that it is the direct result of drug treatment or electroconvulsive therapy for depression (Bailey). Most times this occurs because the patient is misdiagnosed with clinical depression. The final classification of bipolar disorder is known as cyclothemia, or rapid cycling. This type is characterized by intense changes in mood occurring more frequently than what is typically .

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 70

History - Essay Example The Athenians were innocent of this (Kagan). As a matter of fact, the Athenians did not join in the battle at Corcyra until their defeat was imminent. The Athenian siege of Potidaea did not cause the war as this was an act of defense against the true aggressor, Corinth. Corinth had been sworn into a binding oath to respect the dominion and rule of the Athenians in Potidaea. By sending military forces to Potidaea, Corinth had broken the treaty. Athens, as a sovereign state, has every legal right and mandate to control the economic issues and aspects of the empire. The treaty that had been signed by both parties did not specify that one party could not issue a decree against the other (Thucydides, Hammond and Rhodes). This means that Athens was within its legal and rightful power to issue the decree against Megara. In conclusion, the Athenians did not in any way cause the war. Certain policies may have played a role in fueling the war, but considering the facts that are specific to this war, the Athenians acted within the law. Their actions served to protect their sovereignty within its

Airport Capacity and Delay Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Airport Capacity and Delay - Term Paper Example U.S.A’s aviation system is the most complex and the largest system in the globe. U.S’s airspace system contains 3364 airports, 14,934 air traffic controllers and 315 air traffic control facilities. U.S airports handle approximately 171,200 aircraft operations per annum, which include landings and takeoffs each day. From FY 2003 through FY 2O06, it has been estimated that there were about 250 million landings and takeoffs and this amounts to about 62.5 million airport operations per annum. . From FY 2003 through FY 2O06, there were about 1,306 reported runway incursions and however, it is a console to note that no fatalities have occurred from these collisions. (FAA 2007).Despite of this mammoth size and intricacy, commercial aviation is considered to be the safest form of transportation in U.S.A. Despite these complexities, U.S.A has witnessed only one commercial accident since 2002. This is mainly due to FAA strategic goals to minimise the rates of general and commerci al aviation related grave accidents, to minimize the peril of probable runway collisions, and to minimize cabin injuries created by turbulence. (GPO, 2006, p238). Though there has been a steady increase in air traffic in US in recent years, congestion-associated issue does not yet seem to be a pervasive issue for the country’s aviation administration. It is to be noted that majority of delay is caused not by congestion but by inclemental weather. According to FAA data, volume –associated delays amounted for less than fifteen percent of all delays in each of the four years just before 9/11 incident and volume related delays have in fact declined over the past decade. A further, weather associated delay is frequently accounted for over seventy -percent of all delays. However, according to US Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration (US DTFA), present delays seem to happen only at some major airports in US. Delay and capacity issues at U.S airports

Event Marketing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Event Marketing - Assignment Example The organization will use a consistent selection method in every city. The site chosen for the event will be a public library within each city. The largest public library in each city will be the top choice for the event. The quantity of books in the libraries represents the wealth of knowledge that can be attained by developing a study habit and incorporating reading into the weekly routine. During the event the organization will have different guess celebrity speakers talking to the kids about their experience with reading and how much it has helped their lives. In order to attract a lot of kids to the event Read America will solicit the help of a non-profit organization called NBA Cares. NBA Cares is the National Basketball Association global community outreach initiatives that address important social issues such as education, family values, and poverty (Nba, 2011). The organization will select successful retired basketball players who are icons in each city. The retired players that will be speakers at the event are Earvin â€Å"Magic† Johnson, Alonzo Mourning, Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan, and Larry Bird.

Customer relationship management CRM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Customer relationship management CRM - Essay Example In this study, the key marketing principles of Primark will be evaluated. Product: - Most of the company’s merchandise of the company is manufactured by the company itself. The company specializes in menswear, childrenswear, womenswear and home-decor products. Some of the bestselling products of the company are footwear, accessories & hosiery, lingerie, and cosmetics. Most of the brands sold by the company are their own brand. Some of renowned ones are Atmosphere, Denim Co., Secret Possessions, Ocean Club, Backswing, Early Days and Rebel among others (Primark, 2013). With wide range of products, the company caters to customers of different segment. Distribution: - Alongside the importance of developing a sound product strategy, the development of distribution strategy is equally important (Bose, 2010). Moreover, for a company involved in apparel retailing, the importance of distribution is more (Dent, 2011). The success of the company is greatly dependent upon the distribution strategy pursued by the firm. Knowing the importance of distribution, Primark have also developed distribution strategy that ensures delivery of the products at the right place and right time. The company has appointed stockiest at different place of the country, where the company stores their manufactured products. One of the interesting facts is that most of the stock points are extremely close to the retailing outlets. This has allowed the company to make wide variety products available within the store (Michaels, 2010). Apart from the physical distribution, the company also markets their products through online store (primarkonlinestore, 2013). As a result of that the company has been able to streamline their distribution method. Pricing: - Likewise, product and distribution, the pricing strategy adopted by a firm is critical towards the revenue generated by the company as well as the profit earned (Kotler, 2010). In this turbulent business environment, companies have no other option but to maintain a steady profitability in order to sustain for a longer period of time (Craven, 2012; Dransfield, 2004). The pricing strategy adopted by the firm is cost plus pricing method, in which the company fixes the product prices on the basis of the cost incurred for producing one unit of the product. However, at some cases the company also pursues competitive pricing strategy for the sole purpose of dealing effectively with the competitors in terms of price-war. On the other hand, when the company makes it presence in a new market, it usually follows penetration strategy. Despite, the presence of strong brands, the company has kept the prices affordable in order to ensure customers from every section of the society can afford their apparels. Segmentation: - Segmentation is a process by which companies divide the market into different segments. It involves division of the target market into small subsets by considering the common needs of the consumers (McDonald and Du nbar, 1995). A company segments its market on the basis of different factors such as geographic segmentation, behavioural segmentation, psychographic segmentation, segmentation by occasions and segmentation by benefits (Alshorbagy and Elsaman, 2011). In the similar way, Primark divides its overall market into distinct markets. The principal reason for undertaking segmentation strategy is

Owens Precision Machinery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Owens Precision Machinery - Essay Example The company is a machine shop that has felt a recent surge of demand as the trend of insourcing has felt an increase after the recent recession. While the company is keeping up with the increasing demand, the company is also faces issues of dwindling cash reserves. In order to stay ahead of the competition, the company has to keep inventory in stock because of the longer lead time that suppliers require. For this, the company has to rely on outside investment which makes the President and owner consider whether he should sell off his company. The aim of this paper is to analyze the future move of the company. Owen has two options: he could either sell the company or ask his friend and investor for another loan. In order to decide which option to pursue, Owen would have to analyze his company as well as the industry in which he operates. He needs to find out if the issue of capital shortage can be corrected in the near future and what steps should he take in order to solve the problem . If he feels that the company has no future, then the best course of action would be to sell off the company. In order to recommend the best course of action for Owen Precision Machining, the first part studied business models that would help in analyzing the situation at hand. The models that have been used in the paper are: SWOT Analysis, Risk Reward Analysis, Just in Time Strategy, Vendor Managed Inventory, and Business Process Reengineering. SWOT helped in understanding the current standing of the company both internally as well as externally. The Risk Reward Analysis helped in evaluating the potential rewards in comparison with the risks for the options available for Christopher Owen. Since the company was facing the biggest hurdle in managing its inventory, two strategies that were discussed are Just in Time Strategy and Vendor Managed Inventory. Lastly Business Process Reengineering was used to help guide the organization on how to attain the required changes. SWOT Analysis of the company showed that the company is in a favorable position both internally as well as externally. However, the company has to work on its threats in order to bring the company into a more favorable position. The risk reward analysis revealed that the company is in the growing stages where the risks and rewards are both high. In this position, the company has to manage its operations in such a manner that it should be able to minimize the risk and thus entire the mature stage. Also the best option for OPM under the risk reward analysis is to retain the company but at the same time revise its operational strategy. The biggest issue that OPM is facing in this regard is managing its inventory so that cash is available for the company. For this, the analysis suggests using a combination of Just in Time Strategy and Vendor Managed Inventory. In order to bring about the necessary changes, the Business Process Reengineering model will be followed. Once the company was analyzed throug h the above mentioned models, a set of recommendations were developed for the company. It was recommended that Owen not sell the company but rather retain ownership of the company. The company should ask Benson for a bigger loan in order to implement VMI and JIT Strategy. Chapter One Owen’s Precision Machining is a small machine shop that operates with a total of 15 employees and under the leadership of the President and second generation owner, Christopher Owen. The company develops machine parts for robot prototypes and laboratory automation equipment. Before the economic crisis that hit the world in 2007, more and more companies were outsourcing their manufacturing to emerging countries around the world and chief among them was China. This trend of outsourcing had resulted in a decline

International commercial arbitration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

International commercial arbitration - Essay Example ‘(Murray, 2011)’3. In other words, litigation means the filing of charge against another person and bringing the case in the court of law. It is also sometimes called legal process. In litigation, it is quite often that the lawyers are hired by both the parties. However, the right of resolution rests with the court. However, litigation relates to the legal processes which usually involve civil cases. Criminal proceedings are not covered under this term. In litigation, there are two parties involved in the legal proceedings being conducted. One party is called the plaintiff. Plaintiff is the party which brings the charge in the court of law. The other party is called defendant. It is the party against which the charge is taken in the court. This party defends the case and tries to prove the charge to be falsie and void. The plaintiff and defendant may be individuals, organization or states which have brought the lawsuit before the court for resolution. ‘(Business di ctionary,)’4. When the plaintiff brings a civil charge in the court of law, both the parties, that is plaintiff and defendant, are entered into the process of litigation. In courts governing civil procedures, the process of litigation consists of a number of systematic steps. These steps lead to the trial conducted by the court and ultimately, the matter is resolved by the court. However, all the disputes are not taken to the courts at once. Initially, whenever a dispute arises, the parties may try to settle the case between them. This is due to the reason that litigation may involve a number of trial proceedings which may extend to a considerable length of time. It may also be costly and time consuming. Thus, it seems better for the parties to resolve the matter without referring to a court. The case is settled if the person who is alleged to cause the injury fulfills the demands and requirements of the party who is suffered with the injury. However, if the requirements of t he injured party are not fulfilled, that party may proceed to bring the lawsuit in the court of law. The litigation may be brought by serving to the defendant the copies of complaint and summons and then filing the objection and complaint in the civil court. The complaint being served to the court must contain full facts regarding the injuries being caused and then requesting monetary damages or other relief being equitable and justified. ‘(Harris, 1994)’5 In the modern world, it is considered as an art of an active litigator to know the case completely and act both proactively and reactively in order to produce logical arguments with the help of correct evidences. The use of automated techniques also helps the lawyers in winning the case. Litigation support has also been changed with the invention and development of Information technology. These technologies have helped lawyers in handling large number of cases of their clients as day to day complexity of businesses ha s also increased the number of litigation claims in the courts. ARBITRATION: In litigation, the case is taken to the court of law. But the process is time-consuming and expensive. Moreover, in many cases, both the parties do not reach upon a conclusion. However, they also do not prefer to refer to the court of law for the resolution of the case. For such a condition, an alternative for the litigation is introduced. It is known as ‘arbitration’. Thus, arbitration is defined as a technique which involves

Locke Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Locke - Essay Example Without getting consent from the original owner, at this point, no one can possess the resources (Locke 35). Accordingly, all individuals must labor to acquire property. In addition, the property must personally benefit the individual for it to be considered individual property. Labor that the individual cannot use can be traded in for money, which can later be re-traded for property. Locke contrasts gaining of possession through actions both natural and unnatural. The major difference between the two processes is whether the property that one sought for ownership had a previous owner or still lay within the common ownership domain. People who want to acquire property that already belongs to other individuals do not apply labor to own the property (Locke 40). Instead, they are out to own what someone else has already applied his/her labor to with nothing, such as money, in return. While it can be argued that any individual taking ownership of anything should first seek out others to ask their permission if the community owned it, Locke deemed this approach impractical. He compares it to requiring permission from everyone in sight before eating an apple one has found fallen by the roadside (Locke 41). Similarly, if an individual takes ownership of property and leaves more of the same for other people to own and enjoy, no property usurpation can be claimed to have gone on. This should be considered as an action of natural occurrence. However, Locke does caution on how natural private property can be, arguing that the individual should only take as much as is required for personal and family enjoyment (Locke 45). In addition, the property must be only enough for enjoyment without it going bad in the process. For instance, it is not natural in his view to hoard what can perish. While this is true, it is not unnatural for an individual to own or gather more than is enough for personal consumption if the excess is further traded for the purpose of attaining what one does not own or produce. Since labor endows private property with its naturalness, an individual cannot claim property simply for owning it. The individual is required to labor on the land. Therefore, any individual can lose ownership of their property if there is no application of labor (Locke 46). This is because, in that state, the property is not of benefit to them or anyone else. From a cursory reading of Locke, one could assume that he proposes that it is right for a person to put up boundaries on national parks and apply labor to it, allowing the property to become his/her private property. However, deeper reading counters this interpretation by showing that, at this point, there is there is an overlap of divine law and human law. While nature allows man to use earth as he sees best for convenience and self-sustenance, man is not necessarily the determinant of how individuals will use the land (Locke 50). For this reason, people come together to create social bodies and juris dictions such as towns and villages, which determine the best way to benefit collectively from the resources. Sometimes, these jurisdictions may determine that some land will be left out of individual hands and be in common ownership. Attempting to own the property individually would cause a decrease in its usefulness to the community that possesses the land together.

Homelessness of Veterans Essay Example for Free

Homelessness of Veterans Essay The threat of homelessness amongst veterans has become an increasingly growing issue. Through my extensive research I have found multiple reasons as to why this threat has occurred. Some examples of these are things such as the transition from military to civilian life, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and poverty. I am going to apply the functionalist and conflict perspectives in explaining the problems of homelessness amongst veterans. The first institution that fails veterans is the military. From the functionalist perspective the manifest function of the military is to train and structure a person into what is necessary to protect and serve their country. The latent functions of the military are to educate and to receive benefits such as health care and housing. Although these latent functions for the most part only apply to those currently enlisted. The dysfunctions of the military include abuse, corruption, lack of social support, and lack of training on how to function and survive when placed back into civilian life. As a result of these functions conflicts are made such as competition, constraints, and power struggles. The manifest, latent, and dysfunctions relate to competition in that the military is always trying to excel to superiority at any cost. The fate of its soldiers is not a top priority. The constraints of these functions are ones set by the standards of the military. The good or the bad is not achieved unless the military allows for it. The manifest, latent, and dysfunctions relate to power struggles in that the militaries ultimate goal is to become as powerful as can be. This includes power over its soldiers. This power can limit the benefits that a soldier may receive and also the point to which a soldier is pushed. The second institution that fails the veteran is family. From the functionalist perspective the manifest function of family is to provide a structure in which means of living are met. The latent function of family is love and a social support. The dysfunction of family is abuse and neglect which can lead to the lack of money through divorce or abandonment. As a result of these functions conflicts are made such as constraints, coercion, and powers struggles. The constraints of the manifest, latent, and dysfunctions are created by the lack of money or the ability to find a job or even affordable housing. The coercion of these functions are fighting which can lead to divorce. The power struggles of these functions may be stress and pressure applied to the members of the family from other members. The third institution that fails the veteran is the government. From the functionalist perspective the manifest function of the government is to provide stability and safety. The latent function of the government is a source of social support through programs for when there are dysfunctions in other institutions. The dysfunctions of the government are things such as popularity competition when electing government officials and profiting off of the poor. As a result of these functions conflicts are made such as competition, constraints, and power struggles. The manifest, latent, and dysfunctions relate to competition based on that it is a constant competition between programs for which the government will fund. The programs that are unfortunate enough not to receive government funding may fail as a result. The constraints of these functions in government are the limitations that are placed on people due to many things such as social status. The coercion of these functions in government are theft and fighting which in some cases are done in order to survive. Homelessness amongst veterans results from a complex set of circumstances due to the failure of these institutions which in turn force them to choose between even the basic needs that any human must have in order to survive. By using the functionalist and conflict perspectives I have demonstrated in what ways these institutions, military, family, and government, have failed veterans causing them to become homeless.

The Overpowering Nature of Nurture

The Overpowering Nature of Nurture Our first impressions are generated by our experiences and our environment, which means that we can change our first impressions by changing the experiences that comprise those impressions. (Gladwell, 2005, p.97). We are, to a certain extent, the person we are, but the reality is that for reasons unknown to us, there are just certain people with which we do not click. It may be ground into our genes or it may have been structured into our thoughts and beliefs by the environment. The same goes for our own first impressions. We are naturally going to look a certain way or have a certain talent that gets peoples attention, but we still have the ability to change, at least partially, the first impression we show other people. There is no doubt that genetics determine a part of who we are as individuals, but nature is not the key component when considering who we become, since, as humans, we, through our social experiences and moral development, are constantly being shaped by the world in which we are surrounded. Every person is born into this world an individual and it is those initial seconds and minutes after we are born that show the importance nature. Jensen (2005) states, All humans are unique because of both prenatal differences and postnatal experiences (p.113). Our prenatal differences are significant because they determine our genes and the way our brain and body form. For example, both my parents have blue eyes and I also have blue eyes. I was also not born with any diseases or addictions because my mother took good care of her body when she was pregnant with me. My dad and my siblings have been diagnosed with ADD in the last couple years. While I have not been diagnosed, I do believe that I have it as well, at least at a minimal level or at a level Ive learned to control naturally over the years. All of these factors are things that I have no control over; they are what nature has put together for me in my biological make-up. Another biological factor that many people consider is intelligence. According to Gladwell (2008), some people are born with a high level of analytical intelligence which is the type of intelligence measured by I.Q. tests. Oddly, enough, intelligence has a threshold (Gladwell, 2008, p.80). Therefore, despite the amount of intelligence a person is born with, the rest of that persons intelligence, the intelligence that allows us have things like street smarts, is actually learned; it is at this point that the value of nurture comes into play. Nurture is critical when considering the person we each become. After all, our moral development and social experiences are interlinked and both impact the way things turn out for us and various points in our lives. According to Carol Gilligan and Lawrence Kohlberg, moral development happens in a variety of stages. The stage someone actually progresses to will then vary depending on the experiences and opportunities provided. Kohlbergs Theory of Moral Development has six stages and I feel that I am currently between level three and five on his scale, probably depending on the situation (Crain, 1985). In terms of the Heinz dilemma, I agree that the wife should be saved even if it means going against the law to do it. I also know that if I were the druggist, I would not want the death of the wife on my conscious, knowing I could save her. The theory Carol Gilligan created involves three stages, of which I feel I have, in most situations, progressed to the final stage of post-convention al (Hurst, 2013). Interestingly enough, I would credit my higher level of morality to a combination of a religious upbringing, a traditional family life, having to endure the death of my mom, and a sound confidence in myself. It is these social experiences that have helped me understand that while it is important for me to take care of myself, it is also important to consider the needs of others. This understanding of ones own moral development is a contributing factor for the level of success a person can achieve in addition to their social experiences. Malcolm Gladwell emphasizes the influence of an individuals social experiences and upbringing or cultural environments; he states, the values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are and shape the patterns of our achievement in ways we cannot begin to imagine (2008, p.11, 19). My level of responsibility for myself and my family, the supportive environment of friends and family I possessed growing up, and the way I was taught to handle various situations have all affected me in where Ive ended up and how I am today. In agreement with Gladwell (2008), Trish Nicholls, who studied the theories of Lev Vygotsky, states, Culture provides the basic orientations that stucture the behavioural environment of the self (1998, par.10). I am lucky enough to say that I do feel successful at this point in my life, but without the culture I was and am currently surrounded by, I dont believe I would have been able to achieve what I have so far. For example, if my parents did not value higher education and travel, and were not veterans, my years after high school may have been significantly different. I would not have had college paid for by the government and I may not have chosen to spend the money I made working traveling. Without the travel opportunities presented to me at my university, I would not value the things I have or see the world with a global perspective. I also would probably not have as much drive to improve our education system because I wouldnt have had any recognition of how it could be better or what else exists in the world. Vygotsky discusses a zone of proximal development that describes each person as having the potential for greatness, but he also emphasizes why scaffolding and our environment ar e so critical in helping a person become great (Nicholls, 1998). All in all, our social experiences and the nurturing that takes place in our life do affect who we become. It is commonly known that life and who a person becomes is the product of the decisions and path taken along the way. Gladwell (2008) describes successful people in the following way, It is not the brightest who succeed [nature]à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Nor is success simply the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf. It is, rather, a gift. Outliers are those who have been given opportunities-and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them [nurture] (p.267). A large part of the decisions a person makes in their life relates directly to his/her moral development and the experiences he/she has. The reality, though, is that talent, a high I.Q. or the presentation of fantastic opportunities is simply not enough; people must take a combination of everything they are given and use what they know to perfect their first impression of who they really are. After all, we only have one first impression to give. References Crain, W. C. (1985). Theories of Development (pp. 118-136). N.p.: Prentice-Hall. Retrieved from http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kohlberg.htm Gladwell, M. (2005). Blink. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company. Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers. New York, NY: Back Bay Books. Hurst, M. (2013). Carol gilligans theory of moral development. In Education Portal. Retrieved March 20, 2014, from http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/carol-gilligans-theory-of-moral-development.html#lesson Jensen, E. (2005). Teaching with the brain in mind (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Nicholl, T. (1998). Vygotsky. In Mathematics education: Constructivism: Vygotsky and the internet. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock/virtual/trishvyg.htm

Definition Of The Term Authentic Material

Definition Of The Term Authentic Material During the last decades, English language has been expanding considerably all over the world. In fact, people have started to talk about English language as the new global language. As a consequence of this impressive evolution, our nation has applied several educational measures to the general curriculum of education in order to teach correctly English as a second language in schools. The creation of the program Inglà ©s abre puertas and the changes made to the studying plans of MINEDUC are clear examples of this initiative. Notwithstanding, these attempts of improving the English level in our students did not work at all. Last year, a proficiency test called SIMCE was taken so as to evaluate the level of English language in students of third year of high school, and the results obtained by this assessment were really deficient. Indeed, 89% of all students evaluated were not able to certificate a basic level of English. In light of this pitiful scenario, this paper proposes the use of authentic materials as an interesting and useful ESL teaching technique which can contribute to ameliorate the low level of English in students. In the following paragraphs, it will be stated the definition of the concept authentic materials in the ESL field and the sources where teachers can get them. Furthermore, guidelines for the correct selection of these teaching materials will be provided, and the advantages of using them will be described in detail and supported firmly. As the title of this project says, the subject of study is the use of authentic materials in ESL lessons. Thereby, it is necessary to start by defining what authentic materials really are. Firstly, the conceptualization of teaching/learning materials has to be stated concisely and explicitly. In essence, the term material refers to resources in the classroom which students are able to use with the purpose of improving and complementing their learning process. For instance, a book, a photocopied handout, a poster, a flashcard, a whiteboard, or any technological equipment can be defined as material because they act in a complementary way in the teaching/learning process and include the characteristics mentioned before. As Tomlinson (1998) asserts, they are anything which is used to help to teach language learners.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ anything which presents or informs about the language being learned.(p.11). Although it is easy to delineate the meaning of the term teaching/learning materials, the concept of authenticity is a bit more complex of classifying since there are several different authors who have attempted to define it in the field of second language teaching. For example, Heitler (2005) states that authentic materials are any texts written by native English speakers for native English speakers (p.5), while Tomlinson (1998) ascertains that an authentic text is a text not written or spoken for language teaching purposes. Likewise, Kramsh (1993) adds the term authentic has been used as a reaction against the prefabricated artificial language of textbooks and instructional dialogues, it refers to the way language is used in non-pedagogic, natural communication, and Little and Singleton (1988) declares that an authentic text is a text that was created to fulfill some social purpose in the language community in which it was produced. In the same line, Harmer (1991) defines authentic texts as materials which are designed for native speakers; they are real texts; designed not for language students, but for the speakers of the language, and Sanderson (1999) complements the description of authentic materials saying that they are materials that we can use with the students in the classroom and that have not been changed in any way for ESL students. A classic example would be a newspaper article thats written for a native-English-speaking audience (p.3). As it can be seen, there is a spectrum of distinct conceptualizations of authenticity. However, there is an agreement with some specific characteristics of genuine resources among the definitions established before. One of those shared features is the non-pedagogic purpose. Authentic materials are not produced nor adapted so as to be used for teaching or learning a second language; in fact, they are taken as genuine as possible from the reality. In this way, the artificiality of language is avoided completely. A pos itive consequence since the artificial nature of the language and structures used, make them very unlike anything that the learner will encounter in the real world and very often they do not reflect how the language is really used (Berardo, 2006, p.62). In order to complete this pursuit of genuineness, it is essential to obtain materials produced by native speakers. They interact with their peers inevitably in the target language because it is their innate language. Actually, there is not a better version of spoken or written English than the one made by the people who lives in English spoken cultures, so native production becomes another key aspect in the classification of authentic materials. Considering that any interaction between two native speakers can be used as an authentic material, it is unavoidable to look for common situations with the intention of getting real communication in English. Every person uses his own language to transmit a message to other person, and this pr ocess of normal communication among people has to be captured so as to have the authenticity desired in ESL teaching. Thus, real communication is a vital facet in the conceptualization authentic materials. In sum, the three basic characteristics of authentic materials are non-pedagogic purpose, native production, and real communication. For the purpose of this paper, authentic materials will be classified and identified in respect of those features. Nowadays, there is a huge variety of different sources where materials with the characteristics established before can be found, so the task of selection of adequate genuine resources has become a tough one. Even though, the globalized world offers multiple options to look for proper authentic materials for ESL lessons, there are three prime sources which are the most typical used: internet, literature, and mass media. The first one provides a limitless range of useful materials for ESL classroom. In internet, teachers can find podcast, videos, songs, websites, images, advertising, and plenty of other resources which can serve as authentic materials. All these resources possess the benefits of being constantly updated, and additionally most of them are interactive. Unquestionably, this source is the one which contains more available resources among the three named before, and the procedure of searching for specific information is easy to do as well. These advantages of abundance and easiness plus the others mentioned above make internet a valuable source for ESL teaching. Opposite to the advantages of internet, literature works with others aspects of language. It does not provide many resources to be used as authentic materials; indeed, it mainly provides books. Despite the fact that poems and fairy tales can also be utilized for ESL teaching, they are not applied in lessons in a frequent mode. In regard to books, they not only serve as genuine resources for English teaching/learning, but they also function as a reflection of the community in which was written. From literature, students can extract relevant information about cultures and know in depth their linguistic characteristics. As Sanderson (1999) states, language and cultures are intrexicably linked (p.2), so the cultural background is an important advantage of using literature as a source. In addition to this benefit, there is a special contribution to students made by literature. Most of the books are written with the purpose of transferring human experiences to readers, and these experiences have an intrinsic emotional significance. Hence, teachers can use literature to teach students human values so as to educate them integrally. In that way, they will be exploiting totally these authentic materials, and completing one of the major tasks for educators. By the same token, the other main source for finding genuine resources exhibits benefits akin to the previous ones. Mass media play an essential role in the communication of modern society, and their relevance can be demonstrated with the fact that today people are informed about all the important events which happen in the world due to their communicative labor. Mass media function as a way of global communication, and their product is abounding and immediate information. There are several resources from mass media which can be utilized for ESL teaching as magazines, TV programs, live radio and newspapers, but just the last men tioned provides numerous benefits as authentic material. According to Sanderson (1999), there are numerous reasons to use newspapers in classroom, and the stronger ones are general educational value, cultural background, reader interest, and varieties of English. The first one refers basically to the fact that newspapers inform people about what is happening in the world and elaborate on their general knowledge about their reality. The second one refers to the reflection of the culture where a newspaper is written in the language used within it. It is similar to the contribution of books in ESL lessons. The third reason is explained by the assortment of topics and sections which a newspaper contains. Due to that diversity of subjects, readers can be motivated and interested in working with them. The final argument points out the wide range of text types and language styles that newspapers offer to ESL teachers. It is not easy to find this multiplicity in others resources. In view of the advantages of using newspapers described before, they are definitely a beneficial and practical material for ESL teaching. Regardless the fact that plenty of texts can be taken from the three prime sources named in the previous paragraph, it does not mean that all the materials contained in them will be appropriate for ESL teaching. Actually, many examples of language use could be too complex, or too informal for L2 pedagogy. Thus, there are certain criteria which serve as filter for this profusion of resources. According to Berardo (2006), some specific traits have to be pondered in the selection of authentic materials. The most important one is the suitability of the text. The material has to be related to the needs of the students, and additionally it must be motivating for them. For instance, it will be absurd to use a conversation about the construction of a building between two engineers as a learning material if the learners are studying medicine or law because the resources utilized do not fit with the needs of the students. For this purpose, it is necessary to know as many aspects of the student s as possible, so teachers can look for attractive and relevant genuine resources. A useful way of collecting likes and dislikes of students is the use of surveys. By using that technique, teachers can accrue the necessary knowledge about the target group so as to find apt materials. Other factor to consider in selecting materials is exploitability. The text which will be used in class must have a teaching purpose. It should demand coherent and significant tasks from students in order to be helpful for the ESL lesson. Even though authentic material contains real English language, they could not have a use in the classroom if they do not require students to do fruitful exercises. Consequently, the fact of providing native English language is not enough to select a material for an ESL lesson. The texts extracted from the sources must be compatible with the objectives of the class. In addition to this, the complexity of a text should be also considered in the process of deciding if a m aterial is appropriate for ESL teaching. The language level of the genuine resource chosen must match with the language level of students. Linguistic features as structural and lexical ones can affect directly the understanding of students about the text, as well as the amount of new vocabulary and any new grammatical forms present in the material. A teacher cannot pretend to work with materials which their students are not even able to comprehend. The last element which needs consideration in the choice of proper teaching resources is presentation. The contextualization of the authentic material is a detail that cannot be sidestepped. Pictures, photographs, realia and concept maps can help students not only to grasp correctly the gist of the text, but also can aid to construct an imaginary image of the context in which the genuine resource was created. Besides, those elements add attractiveness to materials and stimulate students to learn the target language. The appearance of text s is the first aspect that students notice when materials a represented to them, so it is vital factor in the attempt of getting the attention of students. Considering the explanations and justifications of each criterion in the procedure of choosing materials, it would be beneficial for the teaching and learning of a second language to apply them. Therefore, teachers have to use the four criteria described thoroughly in the previous lines with the purpose of selecting practical and adequate materials for ESL lessons. As it has been already defined the term authentic materials and has been proposed guidelines to select appropriately them, it is the time to say explicitly why genuine resources should be used in ESL classes since that argument is the gist of this research paper. In concise words, the main reason for utilizing genuine resources in ESL lessons is they provide varied and exclusive advantages to the teaching/learning process of English language. Actually, numerous investigators of the field as Nuttal, Widdowson, Berardo, or Martinez have identified many benefits from the use of authentic materials, and in the following lines the most important ones will be presented to support the idea stated. The first and chief advantage of using authentic materials in ESL class is the exposure to real English. One of the central principles in the application of this kind of teaching resource is to immerse students to as much natural language as possible because learners are accustomed to receive an artificial version of the target language in their normal classes. Inevitably, the English language adapted to instructional purposes loses certain incidental features of genuine communication and reproduces the view of teaching designed by the people in charge, whereas using authentic materials provides readers with the chance to practice English with real models of language and to realize differences between communication of native speakers and non-native speakers. This last sentence offers a convenient bridge to explain the sense of achievement which will be the second advantage highlighted in this section. As students do not commonly work with authentic materials in English classes, they can feel afraid of misunderstanding the whole texts or committing mistakes when they will be working with them. The fear towards materials made in foreign countries affects directly the way in which students acquire the target dialect, and the sense of achievement can be explained with regard to that assumption. As it is believed that genuine resources are complex and hard to work with, students feel really happy and proud of themselves when they are able to grasp the main ideas of texts or to complete the tasks demanded for the material. Any improvement produced by learners pertaining to the comprehension and exploitation of authentic material will be significant for them. It is a unique and progressive procedure of delight in learners. Similar to the last benefit of using authentic materials, the next one is also concerned with the affective dimension of learners. Indeed, the third advantage which will be examined in depth is motivation. Generally, students react in a positive way upon the use of novel teaching/learning materials in everyday classes. These innovative pedagogic resources stimulate learners to practice language in an enthusiastic mode. Introducing authentic materials to an English lesson can attain the affective consequences named before since that kind of materials are unusual for students. Besides, genuine resources usually contain diverse visual stimuli which make them more appealing for learners. Videos, newspapers, brochures, and job advices are examples of that motivating characteristic. In light of the advantages about motivation and sense of achievement, it is important to mention that the affective factors of learning a second language have been investigated exhaustively during the last decades. As a matter of fact, Krashen (1977), who is considered one of the most important authors in the field of second language acquisition, states a hypothesis called affective filter which is about the relevance of feelings and attitudes in the L2 acquisition process. Returning to our focus, the fourth advantage of using authentic materials in ESL lessons is cultural background. By way of genuine resources are real communicative situations extracted from their natural context, there are traits of the context embed in them. Thus, cultural information about a country or a community can be obtained from the use of this type of teaching/learning material. Students not only learn a foreign language when using authentic materials, they also learn about cultures from different parts of the world. Thereby, learners can develop a global knowledge of the lifestyles outside of their country and be acquainted with what is going on in the world around them. In the section about sources of possible materials, there were described some resources which include this advantage as their primary characteristic. The final advantage which will be outlined against the use of common instructional materials is variety. This facet of the use of authen tic material possesses two connotations. The first one refers to the multiplicity of types of texts that teachers can utilize as genuine resources. In the part of the paper where it was discussed the diversity of sources, there were named around twenty distinct authentic resources which can be utilized in ESL class. In there, it was demonstrated that there is an abundance of kinds of genuine resources, and teachers only have to select one according to their teaching purposes. Besides, this wide range of texts includes a variety of language styles too. Students can benefit from them, and develop their basic skills of English language. For example, learners can ameliorate their listening skill by hearing different accents in conversations extracted from native speakers from distinct countries, or they can improve their reading skill by comparing diverse writing styles presented in books which were made in different cultures. The second connotation refers to the assortment of topics wh ich can be found in the sources of genuine resources. This mixture implicates teachers can choose materials considering likes and needs of their students and prepare a lesson which will be relevant and motivating for them. As it has been confirmed in previous paragraphs, the interest of students upon a learning resource can change radically the effectiveness of the class. With all these unique and practical features at their disposal, ESL teachers have to start questioning why they do not use authentic materials commonly in class because at the moment there is not a solid argument to stand out these advantages and benefits. It is compulsory for ESL educators to investigate about different ways to teach English so as to possess a spectrum of distinct methodologies or techniques. Thereby, they can choose an appropriate one pondering the characteristics and needs of their target group of learners. In this respect, authentic materials are teaching resources easy to find and select, and additionally they provide exposure to real English, sense of achievement, motivation, cultural background and variety to ESL classes. Therefore, they must be considered as a valuable and useful teaching/learning material for teachers in the ESL field, and undoubtedly they must be used in a more frequent way in their lessons.

A Critique of Jack Londons To Build a Fire :: London To Build a Fire Essays

A Critique of Jack London's To Build a Fire Karen Rhodes analyzed to build a fire in a cultural context. He believed "London's works were written so that he could survive in a world he increasingly came to see as "red in tooth and claw""(1). It is obviously the story of a man fighting the stresses of Nature. According to Rhodes, to build a fire was drawn from the year London spent in Canada's Yukon Territory. London depicted arctic and very cold conditions throughout the story. Rhodes believed to build a fire represented London's Naturalistic Flavor. "It pits one man alone against the overwhelming forces of nature"(Karen Rhodes, 1). He also believed to build a fire can either be interpreted as the Pioneer American experience or can be read as an allegory for the journey of human existence (Karen Rhodes, 1). According to Rhodes, there are two versions of to build a fire; the first one was written in 1902 while the second one was written in 1908. We are studying the 1908 version." It has come to be known as everyman trekking thr ough the Naturalistic Universe"(Karen Rhodes, 1). To build a fire is indeed the story of a man trekking through the universe alone except for his dog. The man's death at the end was the culmination of the story. " His death came through no lapse of observation, no lack of diligence, no real folly but the nature of himself and his environment" (Karen Rhodes, 2). I think his is a fine criticism of London's to build a fire. London had made use of his life experiences in writing the story. I agree with Karen Rhodes observation that to build afirecan be interpreted as the story of a man in the journey of human existence. However, I think her view of to build a fire as an American experience comes from the fact that she is an American. I agree with her theory that the Man's death in the end was due to the nature of the man and his environment. The protagonist in to build a fire did nor have any grasp of the danger he was in. he tried to reason himself through it all. He thought, " Maybe, if he ran on, his feet will thaw out; and anyway if he ran far enough, he would reach camp and the boys. (Jack London, 157).

Essay --

The assessment framework for children in need and their families consists of gathering information that could potentially be important to look at. Social services would then evaluate the material which has been collected, and discuss whether or not it is valuable. Then decisions would need to be made on how the social services can support the family in need. The assessment needs to be centred on the child, and what is best for them. The assessment should also build on strengths and not focus purely on the negatives. It also needs to be holistic, taking everything into account (where the family lives, what benefits they are getting, what are their neighbours like etc.). It is also a continuing process; the assessment is not a ‘one off’. Social services don't have to help all families with children but they do have a duty to look into your situation to check what help you are entitled to. Social services can provide help for a family, like a placement in a playground or nursery for an infant; they can help with problems with schools or childcare. Social services can also help with a child’s behaviour, and help with any drug or alcohol problems. They can offer friendship and support, and if it is needed, counselling can be offered. A family could be entitled to housing and/or financial support from social services if someone in the family is under the age of 18 and is classed as a ‘child in need’. The child, or children, should be considered as a ‘child in need’ if he or she needs help to manage the things that affect health and development (the Children Act 1989). Examples of which could be lack of money or food, not having accommodation, problems that may affect health or education, or that the child is living with a violent person... ...lves. It is important for children that they are provided with an encouraging and secure environment in both the home and in school. Children need to feel that their parents and teachers value learning. If kids are shown that academic exploration is important, they are likely to develop similar attitudes. Furthermore, it is important to let kids know that failure is often part of the learning process. Kids who are not afraid to fail are more willing to accept scholastic challenges and are less likely to interrupt their own academic efforts. It is also important for kids to have plenty of support at home. The home environment shapes the initial attitudes that children have towards learning. However there are professionals that are available, such as counsellors and psychologists, both in and out of school, paediatricians, and state psychological associations.

Ectasy and its Effects :: essays research papers

Club Drugs: Ecstasy In developing prevention efforts that target young people, prevention managers must design strategies to counter the increasing use and widespread availability of the club drug Ecstasy. Known as â€Å"the party drug,† Ecstasy is both a stimulant and a hallucinogen, and its effects are potentially life-threatening. Because it is inexpensive and easily accessible, Ecstasy is gaining in popularity. As reported in the Monitoring the Future Study (National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA] 1999), 3.6 percent of 12th graders, 3.3 percent of 10th graders, and 1.8 percent of 8th graders said they had used the drug in 1998. From 1991 through 1998, use by college students increased from 0.9 percent to 2.4 percent and by adults, from 0.8 percent to 2.1 percent (NIDA, Facts About MDMA, 2000). What Is Ecstasy? Ecstasy is the street name for methylene-dioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), a chemical substance that combines methamphetamines with hallucinogenic properties. It is also known as X-TC, Adam, Clarity, and Lover’s Speed. Like all club drugs, Ecstasy is a combination of other illicit drugs. Because many different recipes are used to make Ecstasy, the risk of death and permanent brain damage are heightened when some substances are combined. It is available in tablet, capsule, or powder form; some manufacturers of the drug package it in capsules or generic tablets to imitate prescription drugs. The average cost is between $7 and $30 per pill. Among the variations of the drug is a new substance, Herbal Ecstasy, that is composed of ephedrine (ma huang) or pseudoephedrine and caffeine from the kola nut. Sold in tablet form, this drug may cause permanent brain damage and death (NIDA, Club Drugs: Just the Facts, 2000). What Side Effects Are Produced by Ecstasy? Ecstasy’s effects can last up to 24 hours. The drug produces immediate side effects, and some—such as confusion, depression, sleep problems, anxiety, and paranoia—can occur weeks after it is taken (NIDA, Community Drug Alert Bulletin on Club Drugs, 2000). Because Ecstasy alters serotonin levels in the brain, researchers have found that chronic use can lead to long-term or permanent damage to those parts of the brain critical to thought, memory, and pleasure (NIDA, Facts About MDMA, 2000).

Brand Equity, Perceived Value and Revisit Intentions †an Evidence from the Hotel Industry

CHAPTER – I INTRODUCTION 1. 1 INTRODUCTION Both the domestic and foreign arrivals have shown a rapid increase with India emerging as a vibrant and varied tourist destinations. The domestic tourism industry grew at a rate of 10. 7 % in whereas foreign arrivals at 8. 1% in 2010 (Indian Tourism Statistics,2010). To feed this splurge in arrivals hotels are booming across India and this most importantly has not been restricted to just metros. Even second tier cities like Bhopal, Amritsar, Surat, Ranchi etc are being looked upon as potential feasible destinations of upscale star brands.The hotel industry in India can be divided into eight segments based on the norms set by the Ministry of Tourism. They are 5-Star Deluxe, 5-Star, 4-Star, 3-Star, 2-Star, 1-Star, Heritage and Unclassified. However, the 3-star, 2-star, 1star and unclassified hotels in India are spread across the length and breadth of the country and are highly fragmented in nature, whereas, the upscale, mid market and h eritage categories are highly organized. Domestic tourist arrivals are the backbone of Indian Hotel Industry as the number of Domestic Tourists is more than 100 times (Indian Tourism Statistics, 2010) as compared to Foreign Tourists.Domestic tourists are of 2 types, Leisure travelers and Business travelers. Growth in leisure travelers is driven by rising personal discretionary income, evolving lifestyle, growing number of multi earner families, weekend vacation culture, improvement in rail, air as well as road connectivity, diverse topography and rich cultural heritage. Drivers of domestic business traveling are rise in trade and commerce, increasing geographical spread of companies, growing MICE culture. Players like Lemon Tree, Ginger have identified that there is dearth of quality rooms in the mid market segment.Entry of organized players is expected to improve the quality of offerings and bridge the wide gap between midmarket and upscale category. The competition in hotels has u ndergone drastic changes from being dependent on service or price advantages to increasingly relying on brand management. This change has been typically accompanied by the accelerating effects caused by the massive entries of foreign brands into India. Since all hotels basically offer the same products and services customers do tend to rely on established brands or where they have visited for easy selection.BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 1 As Prasad and Dev (2000) stated, the stronger the hotel brand equity, the more customers will prefer that hotel brand. Brand equity had been widely recognized as the most valuable asset to companies and has become a top management priority since it can more easily retain customer loyalty, launch product extension and be synonym with price premium (Aaker, 1991; Lassar et al. , 1995; Keller, 1993). It is due to this fact that hotels prefer acquiring an existing brand for expansion rather than developing a new in-house brand.Exa mple Marriott international took over Ritz-Carlton by adopting an acquisition strategy rather than developing a new luxury segment. In marketing aspects, building a strong brand yields a number of marketing advantages. This includes greater customer loyalty, higher resiliency to endure crisis, and increased marketing communication effectiveness. Ambler et al. (2002) argued that great effort should be exerted for creating and sustaining customer-based brand equity, in that the recognition of the importance of customers? value to a firm? s asset has been increasing in recent days.Farquhar (1989) argued that the brand has value only if it has meaning to the customer. Cobb-Walgren insisted (1995) that â€Å"it is important to understand how brand value is created in the mind of the consumer and how it translates into choice of behavior† (p. 26). Moreover in India brand equity as concept is very different. Customers may perceive an unclassified hotel to be a stronger brand, which they can associate themselves to than a 3 star rated hotel. The categorization of the brand may be based on their familiarity with the staff, the ambience offered, price etc.Thus measuring brand from the customer? s point of view becomes very important. Krishnan (1996) contended that an investigation of customers? mindsets should be conducted before measuring any other aspects of brand equity because customers mindsets about brand is a starting point for understanding the brand. Barwise (1993) stated that the only way to predict marketing actions of brand is measuring the brand equity from the customers? perspectives. By measuring these customer perspectives tactical and marketing decisions can be made and brand extended.Aaker (1991) established five components of brand equity; brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations and other proprietary brand assets. Figure 1 shows the five dimensions of brand equity. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIO NS 2 The five dimensions of brand equity affecting value to the customer have the potential to add value for the firm. Brand loyalty is both one of the dimensions of brand equity and is a consequence affected by brand equity. While brand loyalty is an attitudinal concept as one of the components of brand equity, it can also be a behavioral concept adding value to the firm.In this study, just the first four dimensions of Aaker? s brand equity will be adopted because the fifth category representing patents, trademarks, and channel relationships address the firms? asset rather than customer perceptions and reactions to the brand. Thus, it is considered another intangible asset of the firm. This study examines whether the four components of brand equity affect customer value, and finally marketing result which is revisit intent adding value to the firm as a behavioral brand loyalty. Brand equity has been defined by many researchers according to the viewpoints of their studies?.However, there is an agreement among researchers that brand equity is the value added to the product by the brand (Farguahr 1989). From the customers? perspectives marketing effects can be attitudes, awareness, image, and knowledge (Aaker 1991; Keller; 1993; Agarwal& Rao 1996), while from the firms? perspectives, outcomes can be price, revenue, and cash flow (Simon & Sullivan 1993). BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 3 This study assesses the four components of brand equity developed by Aaker (1991).These four components include brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand association and brand awareness. According to Aaker? s definition, brand loyalty is â€Å"a measure of the attachment that a customer has to a brand. It is one of the indicators of brand equity which is demonstrably linked to future profits, since brand loyalty directly translates into future sales† (p. 39). Oliver (1997) defined brand loyalty as the tendency to be loyal to focal brand as a primary choi ce. In this study, overall attitudinal loyalty to a specific hotel brand was measured.The other of three dimensions follow Aaker? s definition. Perceived quality is â€Å"the customer? s perception of the overall quality or superiority of a product or service with respect to its intended purpose, relative to alternatives†. Brand awareness is â€Å"the ability of potential buyers to recognize or recall that a brand is a member of a certain product category. A link between product class and brand is involved†. Finally, Aaker defined brand association as â€Å"anything linked in memory to a brand†. 1. 2 SIGNIFICANCE AND NEED OF THE STUDYThe rapid transition of India to a market economy and being one of the fastest growing nations today it is getting unprecedented attention. Domestic demand for hotels has historically been higher in India a is growing at a healthy rate coupled with an increase in foreign arrivals. Indian hotels are now starting to realize the import ance of brand equity and loyalty seeing their foreign counterparts who are making a beeline for Indian shores. Service and product alone are not able to capture the customer when he has no dearth of options at all price points.Hence the importance of Brand Equity. Krishnan and Harline (2001) mentioned that service brands in the marketing literature received relatively less consideration than their product counterparts even if the service sector has dominated the economy in most advanced countries. While there is no dearth of branding literature on consumer goods yet only few researches have been carried out in the hotel industry. Moreover in the Indian context there are minimal researches. It is in this respect that this research will provide valuable insight.Finally this study will measure brand equity and its relationship with perceived value and revisit intentions across different categories of hotels representing various price points and compare for difference. BRAND EQUITY, PER CEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 4 This can test the veracity of the notion that even hotels with small inventory offering basic services at the lower price end can have brand equity more than the higher starred hotels. 1. 3 Objectives of the research The research objectives of this study are three fold : 1. To measure brand equity by adopting Aaker? (1991) four dimensions of brand equity which are brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand association and brand awareness in hotels. 2. To investigate the impact of brand equity on customer perceived value, and revisit intent in the Hotel Industry. 3. To compare the results of this study with a similar study carried out in USA. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 5 CHAPTER – II LITERATURE REVIEW 2. 1 INTRODUCTION Keller (1993) defines customer-based brand equity as the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand.Brand knowledge consists of two dimensions: brand awar eness and brand image. He stated that factors such as awareness of brand, and consumer memory including favorability, strength and uniqueness in which a customer had experienced brands affected brand knowledge. Customer-based brand equity, thus, is enhanced by creating favorable responses to pricing, distribution, advertising, and promotion activity for the brand (See figure 3). BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 6 Aaker (1996) suggests brand equity ten, a specific guideline for measuring brand equity.He groups ten sets of measures into five categories brand loyalty, perceived quality, association, awareness and market behavior measure. The first four categories represent customer perceptions and the fifth expressed the information obtained from the market. He also suggested that all measurement items did not have to be standard across different market segments. He indicated that one should take appropriate modifications according to the characteristics of each ind ustry into consideration when adopting the measurement of this brand equity ten.Table 1 depicts the specific measurement items of each dimension recommended by Aaker. Erdem and Swait (1998) measured the brand equity in an information economics framework which emphasized the role of credibility as the main determinant of consumer-based brand equity. In that framework, consumer-based brand equity is related to negative information as well as positive information such as high quality products, and the reduction in perceived risk and information costs attributable to brands as antecedents of brand equity, which is unlike the psychological approach.In their study, brand is regarded as a signal conveyed by the marketing mix strategies and activities associated with that brand. The information should be credible so that a brand can create value, thus, the market process by which credibility is created is important. Therefore, the consumer? s behavior and the firm? s behavior affect brand v alue as signals of product positions. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 7 2. 2 MEASUREMENT OF BRAND EQUITY Capon et al. (1994) argued that there were two kinds of brand equities which were organizational brand equity and customer brand equity.He stated that on organizational based brand equity, financial values such as potential earning, market value, replacement cost can be criteria for the measurement of brand equity. On customer base equity, customers? consideration sets, customer based perceived quality, and preference and /or satisfaction can be measured. Thus, the measurement of brand equity can be divided two perspectives which are financial perspectives and customer perspectives. ? Financial Perspectives Based on the financial market value of the firm, Simon and Sullivan (1993) developed a technique estimating a firm? s brand equity.By decomposing the value of intangible asset which is one of the components of market value of the firm along with tangible a sset, brand equity can be estimated. They identified three categories consisting of the value of the intangible assets; a) brand equity, b) technological advantages such as patent and R&D and c) industry structure and the regulatory environment. The following equation is the value of intangible assets of a firm. V I ? (V b1 ? Vb2)? Vnb ? V ind V I value of the firm? s intangible assets V b1 value of the â€Å"demand-enhancing† component of brand equity such as perceived quality Vb2 alue of expected reductions in marketing costs that result from established brand equity Vnb non-brand factors giving rise to cost advantages such as patent and R&D Vind industry structures and regulatory environment Here, Vb1and Vb2 are the value of brand equity determined by the four factors which are current and past advertising, age of brand, order of entry and current and past advertising shares. By using this technique Simon and Sullivan analyzed the brand equity of each BRAND EQUITY, PER CEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 8 ndustry. They found that industries which are oriented toward strong consumer products have high brand equity. They also observed the impact of marketing events on brand equity by comparing the values of brand equity of Coca-cola and Pepsi. They discovered that their technique was adequate for measuring the effect of marketing events. Customer Perspectives Kamakura and Russell? s (1993) approach is based on the actual purchase behavior using check-out scanner data to estimate brand value to the customer. Their underlying oncept of measuring brand equity is a consumer choice model in which the perceptions of a brand? s attributes are related both to the characteristics of physical product and to psychosocial cues. On the basis of this conceptual model, they developed a measurement method of brand value, defining brand value (BV) as a measure of the intrinsic utility consisting of brand tangible value (BTA) and brand intangible value (BIV). BV= BI V + BTV BTV represents physical features of the product and BIV is the perceptual distortions and other responses to psychosocial cues which is a measure of the value of intangibles.For estimating this model, they analyzed the household purchase histories in a scanner panel by employing a clusterwise logit model in which customers are segmented for each brand market on the basis of long-run brand preferences and short-run responses to the marketing mix such as the order of entry and advertising. The first step of estimation by regression analysis is specifying the number of preference segmentations of brand by relative size, price and advertising sensitivities and brand values.Identifying a set of relevant physical features and obtaining objective measure of these features and then removing them from the brand value are crucial processes of estimating brand intangible value because of the complexity of analyzing the brand intangible value. To illustrate this methodology, Kamakura an d Russell apply it to the powder laundry detergent category. They found that the order of entry is relevant to creating positive brand intangible value, but large investments of advertising does not positively impact brand intangible value.Lassar et al. (1995), on the basis of Keller? s conceptualizing of brand equity in which consumer-based brand equity occurs when the consumer is familiar with the brand and holds some favorable, strong, and unique brand associations in memory, identified five important elements of brand equity; consumer perception, global value associated with a brand, global value stem from the brand name, relative competition, and financial performance. From these BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 9 ive characteristics, they defined brand equity as the enhancement in the perceived utility and desirability a brand name confers on a product. They developed five underlying dimensions of brand equity which are performance, value, social image, tru stworthiness and commitment/attachment. Blackston (1995) stated that brand equity could be seen as two perspectives which were brand value and brand meaning. He contended that brand meaning influences and creates brand value because value depends on the meaning, changing the brand meaning is equivalent to changing the value of the brand.Brand meaning consists of three dimensions including brand salience, brand association and brand personality. He proposed the brand relationships model in which all three were divided by two dimensions: brand image/brand personality and brand attitude. Thus, by measuring these two dimensions, he suggested that marketers could set their brand strategies. Dyson et al. (1996) proposed a consumer value model (CV) as a starting point for measuring brand equity by which the share value of requirements for each brand for each respondent can be estimated, correlating to consumer loyalty.For underpinning the factors affecting the brand? s consumer loyalty, th e BrandDynamics Pyramid developed by Millward Brown, an institution for evaluating brand equity, was used, and consequently they identified the key elements which discriminated between differing degrees of loyalty. The CV model bridges the gap between consumer and financial equity. The aggregation of the individual respondent consumer value model allows predicting market share, a familiar sales measure with a direct relationship to a brand? revenue stream. Yoo et al. (2000) investigated the relationship between the marketing mix and brand equity. Their proposition of the research stated that the marketing mixes such as price, store image, distribution intensity, advertising spending, and price deals affect each brand equity component including perceived quality, brand loyalty and brand awareness combined with brand association. They also examined how each component of brand equity affected the „overall brand equity? developed by the researchers.They employed a structure equati on model for estimating the parameters of their conceptual model, and consequently found that high price, high advertising spending, good store image, and high distribution intensity are related to high brand equity, whereas frequent price promotions are related to low brand equity. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 10 2. 3 BRAND EQUITY RESEARCH IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY Berry (2002) stated that branding plays a special role in service companies because strong brands increase customers? trust of the invisible purchase.However, despite the increasing importance of branding decisions in the services domain, there has been relatively little research in this area. Due to the special characteristics that service possesses such as inseparability, heterogeneity, intangibility, and perishability, an argument that the measurement brand equity in services should be different from physical goods has been rising. Yet, several researchers tried to adopt consumer-based brand equi ty for measuring brand equity in services. Krishnan and Hartline (2001) assessed brand equity in the context of services marketing and compare it to brand equity for goods.They examined three types of services and one type of tangible good for their research according to three attributes that goods and services possesses, which are search, experience, and credence attributes. The result of their study is that brand equity is more important for services than for goods, which is quiet a different view from the traditional literature review. Mackay (2001) applied existing consumer based measures of brand equity to a financial services market. His study is meaningful in that it is the first attempt to adopt the measurement of consumer based brand equity to the services industry.He finds that the measurement is reliable and valid in service marketing, and that the best measurement of brand equity in terms of correlation with market share is brand awareness. Kim and Kim (2004) investigate d the relationship between customer based brand equity and quick service restaurant (QSR) chains? performance. They measured four dimensions of brand equity: brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality and brand image. Through regression analysis they explored the correlation between brand equity and sales revenue.Consequently, they found that brand equity had a positive effect on the performance, especially brand awareness among the four dimensions of brand equity is the most important factor affecting QSR performance. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 11 2. 4 BRAND EQUITY RESEARCH IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY Cobb-Walgren et al. (1995) demonstrated how the consumer? s brand perception affects the brand preference and brand choice. In their study, they adapted the familiar hierarchy of effects model as a framework for studying various antecedents and consequences of brand equity from the perspective of the individual consumer.In their study, brand equity was not m easured directly. Consumers form perceptions about the physical and psychological features of a brand from various information sources. These perceptions contribute to the meaning or value that the brand adds to the consumer-i. e. brand equity. Brand equity then influences consumer preferences and purchase intentions, and ultimately brand choice. After comparing Holiday Inn and Howard Johnson, they discovered that the brand with a higher equity generates significantly greater preferences and purchase intentions.Considering customers as the sources of all cash flow and resulting profits, Prasad and Dev (2000) developed a customer-centric index of hotel brand equity. This customer-centric brand equity index was a measure for converting customers? awareness of a brand and their view of a brand? s performance into a numerical index. This was based on: actual customer data on customer satisfaction, intent to return, perception of price-value relationship, brand preference, and top-of-min d awareness of the brand.Kim, Kim, and An (2003) investigated the relationship between brand equity and the firms? financial performance. Based on the dimensions of customer-based brand equity which are brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality and brand image, Kim et al tried to identify BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 12 brand equity? s correlation with financial performance (RevPAR) in the hotel industry. The result revealed that brand equity perceived by the customers can affect generating revenue.Brand equity research in marketing has largely concentrated on a customer-based approach. Keller (1993) mentioned that the customer-based brand equity is more practical for managers in that it provides for them a strategic vision of customer behavior that can be adapted to brand strategy. Yet, Ailawadi et al (2003) insisted that the measuring of customer mindset cannot be objective and that it is difficult to calculate the precise figure because its measure ment is based on consumer surveys. In this study, brand equity measurement from a customer perspective was adopted.Especially, the items Yoo and Donthu (2001) have developed were mainly used because some researchers (Washburn and Plank, 2002) proved its validation. Sun et al. (2008) investigated the impact of customer based brand equity on 6 mid-price hotels in U. S. A. The results indicated that brand loyalty had the least score which they concluded showed that it was most difficult to win loyalty of the customers. Moreover apart from brand loyalty, none of the other dimensions had any effect on revisit intent but perceived value did have an impact on revisit intentions of the customers.BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 13 CHAPTER – III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3. 1 CONCEPTUAL MODEL A model of this study has been constructed. In this model, dimensions of brand equity affecting perceived value and revisit intention will be argued. Each of the constructs in the proposed model is described and the theoretical support for the hypothesized relationships is set forth. In this paper, the approach and questionnaire developed by Sun et al. (2008) has been used. In their study, as method of measuring brand equity, four of the five dimensions of Aaker? s brand equity (Aaker 1991) were adopted.Aaker (1991) mentioned that brand equity consists of brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand association and other proprietary brand assets such as patents, trademarks, and channel relationship. However, since the fifth components was not relevant to the consumer perception, only the first four components of brand equity were adopted, and this study takes that approach forward implementing it in the Indian scenario. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 14 Sun et al. (2008) described the four dimensions of Brand Equity with Perceived Value and Revisit Intentions in the following ways :BRAND LOYALTY Loyalty is a core dimension of brand equity. Aaker (1991) described brand loyalty as â€Å"the attachment that a customer has to brand† (p. 65). A strong form of attachment refers to the resistance to change and the ability of a brand to withstand bad news. Brand loyalty can be seen as two types: attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty. Gounaris et al. (2003) summarized these two types of brand loyalty in which behavioral loyalty refers to repeated purchase and attitudinal loyalty refers to a strong internal disposition towards a brand leading to repeated purchases.Oliver (1997) defined brand loyalty as the tendency to be loyal to focal brands as a primary choice. In their study, overall attitudinal loyalty to a specific hotel brand was measured as a dimension of brand equity and behavioral loyalty which in the hotel industry can be translated into revisit intent. PERCEIVED QUALITY Zeithmal (1988) defined perceived quality as the consumer? s perception of the overall quality or superiority of a product or service with respect to its intended purpose, relative to alternatives.Aaker (1991) mentioned that perceived quality could be considered two different contexts which are product quality and service quality. While product quality consists of seven dimensions: performance, features, conformance with specifications, reliability, durability, serviceability, and fit and finish, service quality dimensions are tangibles, reliability, competence, responsiveness and empathy. Since the hotel industry is one of the important service businesses, in their paper, the measurement of service quality model (SERVQUAL) developed by Parasuraman et al. (1988) was adopted. BRAND AWARENESSBrand awareness is â€Å"the ability for a buyer to recognize or recall that a brand is a member of certain product category† (Aaker 1991, p. 61). Aaker (1996) refers to brand awareness as the strength of a brand? s presence in the customer? s mind. Brand awareness can be measured as a brand recognition or bra nd recall, otherwise both of them. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 15 In their study, Yoo and Donthu (2001)? s item scale which measures brand recognition was adopted. BRAND ASSOCIATION Aaker (1991) defines brand associations as â€Å"anything linked in memory to a brand† (p. 109).This includes the strength, favorability, and uniqueness of perceived attributes and benefits for the brand. (Keller 1993). On the basis of this concept of brand association, Yoo and Donthu (2001) developed items for measuring brand association. PERCEIVED VALUE Customer value is defined as â€Å"the consumer? s overall assessment of the utility of a product based on the perceptions of what is received and what is given† (Zeithmal, 1988, p. 14). Sweeny et al(1999) interpreted this value as â€Å"the trade off of salient „give? and „get? components† (p. 79). In the same study, they found the positive effect of perceived quality on perceived value.REVISIT INTENTIONS It is the intention to repurchase the product or reuse the service. Washburn & Plank (2002) examined the relationship between different dimensions of brand equity including brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand awareness and brand association and repurchase intention. They found that the correlation between the dimensions of brand equity and repurchase intention is significant. In the study, repurchase intention was modified into revisit intention. 3. 2 HYPOTHESIS The following hypothesis were made to measure the impact of Brand Equity on Perceived Value and Revisit Intention.Hypothesis1: The four dimensions of brand equity positively affect the perceived value of the Hotels. H1a: Brand loyalty will have a positive effect on customers? perceived value . BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 16 H1b: Perceived quality will have a positive effect on a customers? perceived value. H1c: Brand awareness will have a positive effect on a customers? perceived value H1d: Brand association will have a positive effect on a customers? perceived value Hypothesis2: The four dimensions of brand equity positively affect Revisit intention of the hotels H2a: Brand loyalty will have a positive effect on customers? evisit intention H2b: Perceived quality will have a positive effect on customers? revisit intention H2c: Brand awareness will have a positive effect on customers? revisit intention H2d: Brand association will have a positive effect on customers? revisit intention Hypothesis3: Perceived value will have a positive effect on revisit intention of the hotels. Hypothesis4: The perception of the people regarding Brand Equity Dimensions, Perceived Value and Revisit Intention varies across the three segments of the hotels. H4a :The perceptions of the people regarding Brand Loyalty varies across the three segments.H4b :The perceptions of the people regarding Perceive Quality varies across the three segments. H4c :The perceptions of the people regarding Brand Awareness varies across the three segments. H4d :The perceptions of the people regarding Brand Association varies across the three segments. H4e :The perceptions of the people regarding Perceived Value varies across the three segments. H4f : The perceptions of the people regarding Revisit Intent varies across the three segments. Hypothesis5: The perception of the people regarding Brand Equity Dimensions, Perceived Value and Revisit Intention varies with age.BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 17 H5a : The perceptions of the people regarding Brand Loyalty varies with age. H5b :The perceptions of the people regarding Perceive Quality varies with age. H5c :The perceptions of the people regarding Brand Awareness varies with age. H5d :The perceptions of the people regarding Brand Association varies with age. H5e :The perceptions of the people regarding Perceived Value varies with age H5f : The perceptions of the people regarding Revisit Intent varies with age.Hypot hesis6: The perception of the people regarding Brand Equity Dimensions, Perceived Value and Revisit Intention varies with gender. H6a : The perceptions of the people regarding Brand Loyalty varies with gender. H6b :The perceptions of the people regarding Perceive Quality varies with gender. H6c :The perceptions of the people regarding Brand Awareness varies with gender. H6d :The perceptions of the people regarding Brand Association varies with gender. H6e :The perceptions of the people regarding Perceived Value varies with gender. H6f : The perceptions of the people regarding Revisit Intent varies with gender.Hypothesis7: The perception of the people regarding Brand Equity Dimensions, Perceived Value and Revisit Intention varies with Income. H7a : The perceptions of the people regarding Brand Loyalty varies with income. H7b :The perceptions of the people regarding Perceive Quality varies with income. H7c :The perceptions of the people regarding Brand Awareness varies with income. H7 d :The perceptions of the people regarding Brand Association varies with income. H7e :The perceptions of the people regarding Perceived Value varies with income. H7f : The perceptions of the people regarding Revisit Intent varies with income.BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 18 3. 3 SAMPLING : Chandigarh has more than 50 hotels at all price points. The range lies from Hotels having an ARR of just Rs. 600 to a Hotel like Marriott where the present tariff is Rs. 10400 base category room. It was decided to do this research on hotels across various price points and hotel star judgements. Thus price points for a number of hotels were taken and together with the perceptions of 10 respondents regarding their segments. Finally for this study the following 10 hotels were taken, divided into three segments.Upscale: J. W. Marriott, Mount View and Bella Vista. Mid-Price Segment- Amara, Maya Hotel, Western Court Budget – Aroma, The Piccadily, Sunbeam and Himani Residenc y. The sampling method used was Stratified Random of the people visiting these 10 hotels for their stay in Chandigarh. The sample size was estimated to be 225, taking around 20-25 respondents from each of these hotels. The data collection process was carried out over the months of November, December and January and a total of 215 filed questionnaires were collected from these properties. 3. INSTRUMENT DESIGN : A self-administered survey questionnaire was used as the data collection tool, as suggested by Crimp and Wright (1993) that it is a valuable tool that is flexible, fast, accurate and easy to be used in statistical analysis. Miller et al. (2002) believe that a large sample size obtained via questionnaires can provide unbiased statistical results and can be implied as the representatives of the whole population. The questionnaire as mentioned earlier was taken from the one developed by Sun et al. (2008). It consisted of 2 sections.The first statement provided specific statements for each dimension. The items for measuring brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand awareness and brand association followed by perceived value and revisit intent constituted this section. The demographic information was the second section of the questionnaire. The questionnaire had 31 total items. Brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand awareness and brand association are measured on a five point Likert scale, with 1 for â€Å"strongly agree† and 5 for â€Å"strongly BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 19 disagree†.Except perceived quality, all items were modified to a hotel context from the original format of other studies. Parasuraman et al. (1988) developed the SERVQUAL model for measuring service quality in which all items were divided into five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. This study will adopt Gabbie and O? Neil (1996)? s tool for measuring hotel service quality. In their study, the first four dimen sions were assessed because the empathy dimension of SERVQUAL was less important and even irrelevant in hotel service quality.Brand loyalty is considered as perceptual/ attititudinal loyalty consisting of one of the components of brand equity. However, as Aaker mentioned (1991), brand loyalty is regarded as both one of the dimensions of brand equity and is affected by brand equity. Therefore, this behavioral loyalty can be used to estimate the consequences of brand equity. 3. 5 PRETESTING : In Churchill? s (1995) term, the pretest, a stage during the questionnaire design process, is usually conducted after the completion of the initial questionnaire, but before the data collection procedure.Its basic objective is to ensure that the structure and language used in the questionnaire are appropriate enough to enable the instrument to actually collect the data required from the target population (Reynolds and Diamantopoulos 1996). Compeau et al. (1995) recommend that a pretest should be conducted prior to the real distribution of the questionnaires in order to find out the deficiencies and validate the instrument. In this study pretesting was done on a convenience sample of 20 respondents. It was observed that the respondents found no ambiguity while filling up of the questionnaire.Moreover the Cronbach alpha calculated for these 20 respondents in SPSS yielded an Apha of 0. 834, which was more than acceptable level of 0. 7. Hence the questionnaire was retained as it is in its current form and used further up for data collection. 3. 6 STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES USED : The research data collected was analyzed using SPSS V. 19 and the following statistical techniques were employed. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 20 Correlation Analysis The preliminary analysis of the degree of linear association between the variables has been done with the help of correlation.Correlation is a statistical device which helps in analyzing the co variation of two or more variables. Correlation analysis determines the degree of relationship between two or more variables. In other words it? s a technique that is used to measure the closeness of the relationship between two or more variables. The correlation analysis can be broken into two steps: 1. Determining whether a relationship exists and if yes, the measuring it. 2. Testing whether it is significant. There are different methods of measuring of measuring the correlation but the two prominent methods are: 1. Karl Pearson? s coefficient of correlation. . Spearman? s coefficient of correlation. For the purpose of the present study, Karl Pearson? s coefficient of correlation has been used. The following are the general rules for interpreting the value of r: ? ? ? When r = +1, it means there is perfect positive relationship between the variables. When r = -1, it means there is perfect negative relationship between the variables. When r = 0, it means there is no relationship between the variables i. e . the variables are uncorrelated. The closer the value of r is to +1 or -1, the closer the relationship between the variables and the closer r is to 0, the lesser is the relationship.The coefficient of determination i. e. r2 is defined as the ratio of the explained variance to total variance. Coefficient of determination = Explained Variance/ Total Variance BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 21 Regression Analysis Regression analysis focuses on techniques for modeling and analyzing several variables when the focus is on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. More specifically, regression analysis helps understand how the typical value of he dependent variable changes when any one of the independent variables is varied while the other independent variables are held constant. Most commonly, regression analysis estimates the conditional expectation of dependent variable given the independent variables- that is, the average value of the dependent variable when the independent variables are held fixed. The estimation target is a function of the independent variables called the regression function. ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) ANOVA is a statistical technique designed to test whether the means of more than two quantitative populations are equal.It consists of classifying and cross classifying statistical results and testing whether the means of a specified classification differ significantly. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 22 CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS The hypotheses constructed on the basis of literature review are tested using various techniques in this stage of data analysis. SPSS version 19. 0 was used for analyzing the data by employing various tests that are explained in this Chapter. Before the data analysis begins, the data is first edited and coded.Editing involves checking the data collected through questionnaires for completeness, omissions and legibility. Since the data f orms were self administered, care was taken to get omissions and illegibility in forms simultaneously corrected from the respondents. Despite that in 8 forms it was noticed discrepancy in the nature of some variables not being answered. They were marked 3 signifying a neutral score or undecided one. A lower score for the variables indicated a better positive response and a total of 215 usable questionnaires were obtained from the data collection process. . 1 Demographic Profile of the Respondents Demographics regarding gender, age, income level and the segment of the hotel where they stayed has been shown in this section. Table 4. 1 Gender-wise distribution of respondents Hotel Segment * Gender Crosstabulation Gender Male Hotel Segment Budget 46 Female 34 29 17 80 Total 80 75 60 215 Mid-Price 46 Upscale Total 43 135 BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 23 Chart 4. 1 Bar-graph of the gender wise distribution of respondents An analysis of the table and chart reveals th at a majority, 62. % of the respondents were male and the rest female. Moreover whereas there was almost an equal distribution of males throughout the 3 segments, most of the female respondents were taken from the Budget segment. Table 4. 2 Age-wise distribution of respondents Hotel Segment * Age Crosstabulation Age 54 0 2 2 4 Total 80 75 60 215 Mid-Price 12 Upscale Total 10 50 BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 24 Chart 4. 2 Bar-graph of the age wise distribution of respondents An analysis of the above reveals that a majority of the respondents totaling to 92. 1% were below the age of 44 years.The highest number of the respondents were from the 25-34 year bracket while the lowest, just 4 respondents above the age of 54. Moreover it is noticeable that as the age went higher there were more respondents opting out for Mid-Price and Upscale hotels. Table 4. 3 Income-wise distribution of respondents Hotel Segment * Household income per month Crosstabulation Hotel Segme nt Budget Household income per month 100000 Total 6 21 28 25 80 12 11 44 22 19 69 28 27 80 75 60 215 Total Mid-Price 13 Upscale 3 22 BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 25 Chart 4. 3 Bar-graph of the income wise distribution of respondentsAn analysis of the above reveals that the majority 37. 2% of the respondents had a household income greater than 1 lakh per month while 32. 1% in the 50001-100000 bracket. 20. 5% of the respondents were earning between Rs. 20000-50000 while just 10. 2% below Rs. 20000. Also it is noticeable that with the rise in income there is an increasing number of people preferring Mid-Price and Upscale hotels. Table 4. 4 Segment-wise distribution of respondents Hotel Segment Cumulative Valid Percent Percent 37. 2 34. 9 27. 9 100. 0 37. 2 72. 1 100. 0 Frequency Percent Valid Budget 80 37. 2 34. 9 27. 9 100. 0 Mid-Price 75 Upscale Total 60 215BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 26 Chart 4. 4 Bar-graph of the segment wise distrib ution of respondents Thus, the majority of the respondents were taken from the Budget Segment representing 37. 2 % of the total sample. While 34. 9 % and 27. 9 % were taken from the Mid-Price and Upscale Segments. 4. 2 RECODING Reverse coding is a procedure where some questions in a survey are worded such that high values of a theoretical construct is reflected by high scores on the item, while other questions are worded such that high values of the same construct is reflected by low scores on the item.Reversing the order of the codes for negative statements so that their codes reflect the same direction and order as the positive statements? codes requires a simple transformation which is available in SPSS. The formula for the same is New Value = (Scale minimum + Scale minimum) – Old value The following two questions were recoded : 1. I have difficulty in imagining the hotel in my mind. 2. The price shown for the hotel is unacceptable. Thus these two questions were thereby po sitively stated in SPSS. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 7 4. 3 RELIABILITY Reliability is the degree to which the measures are free from errors and therefore yield consistent results. Two dimensions underlie the concept of reliability: one is repeatability and the other is internal consistency (Zikmund, 2009). The internal consistency measure is the most preferred one because it requires a single administration and establishing reliability through the other measures is difficult since once a subject has been put through some test, it will no longer remain neutral to the test.Researchers commonly use Cronbach Alpha coefficient, which is an indicator of the internal consistency of the scale, for establishing scale reliability. A high value of Cronbach alpha coefficient suggests that the items that make up the scale measure the same underlying construct. A value of Cronbach alpha above 0. 70 can be used as a reasonable test of scale reliability. Thus Alpha was mea sured for each dimension of the scale separately and then for the whole scale i. e. for the 26 items. Table 4. 5 Cronbach’s Alpha co-efficient of reliability for Brand Loyalty Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha . 17 N of Items 3 The value is acceptable being over 0. 7 and hence Brand Loyalty is internally consistent. Table 4. 6 Cronbach’s Alpha co-efficient of reliability for Perceived Quality Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha . 938 N of Items 12 BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 28 The value for Perceived Quality is over the acceptable level of 0. 7 and hence the items are internally consistent. Table 4. 7 Cronbach’s Alpha co-efficient of reliability for Brand Awareness Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha . 842 N of Items 3 The value for Brand Awareness is over the acceptable level of 0. and hence the items are internally consistent. Table 4. 8 Cronbach’s Alpha co-efficient of reliability for Brand Association Reliabilit y Statistics Cronbach's Alpha . 706 N of Items 3 The value for Brand Association is just over the acceptable level of 0. 7 and hence the items are internally consistent. Table 4. 9 Cronbach’s Alpha co-efficient of reliability for Perceived Value Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha . 731 N of Items 3 The value for Perceived value is over the acceptable level of 0. 7 and hence the items are internally consistent. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 9 Table 4. 10 Cronbach’s Alpha co-efficient of reliability for Revisit Intention Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha . 857 N of Items 2 The value for revisit intentions is over the acceptable level of 0. 7 and hence the items are internally consistent. Table 4. 11 Cronbach’s Alpha co-efficient of reliability for the Whole Scale Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha . 926 N of Items 26 Thus for all dimensions of the scale the alpha is above the acceptable threshold of 0. 7. In fact the alpha fo r the whole scale signifying a value of 0. 926 is excellent. Moreover it is oticeable that for scales which have fewer items the alpha is comparatively lower. This simply follows from the fact that value of alpha is directly proportional to the number of items on the scale and one of the ways to increase alpha has been to increase the number of items. 4. 4 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS Descriptive statistics reveal the mean value and the standard deviation of the variables. They also show the general direction of the variables i. e. towards the positive side or negative side. The following tables first give descriptive statistics of the total 26 items of the scale.In the second part a comparison has been made between the individual dimensions and the 3 segments of the hotels. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 30 Table 4. 12 Descriptive statistics for Brand Loyalty Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean I consider myself to be loyal to the 215 1 5 2. 37 hotel. The hotel would be my first choice. 215 1 5 2. 27 I will not visit other brands if the 215 1 hotel has no room available. Brand Loyalty Valid N (listwise) 215 1. 00 215 5 3. 48 Std. Deviation 1. 081 1. 038 1. 147 5. 00 2. 7054 .81970 Table 4. 3 Descriptive statistics for Perceived Quality Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum The physical facilities at the 215 1 5 hotel are visually appealing. Staff at the hotel appears neat. 215 1 5 Quality of food /beverage at the hotel satisfies me. When I have problems, the hotel shows a genuine interest in solving them. The hotel performs the service right the first time. The hotel insists on error free service. Staff at the hotel is able to tell patrons exactly when services would be performed. 215 215 1 1 5 5 Mean 2. 18 2. 05 2. 12 2. 20 Std. Deviation . 795 . 853 . 927 1. 002 215 215 215 1 1 1 5 5 5 2. 17 2. 34 2. 6 .991 1. 047 . 949 Staff at the hotel is always 215 willing to help me. Staff at the hotel gives prompt 215 service to me. Staff of the hotel is consistently 215 courteous with me. The behavior of staff at the 215 hotel instills confidence in me. I feel safe in my transaction. Perceived Quality Valid N (listwise) 215 215 215 1 1 1 5 5 5 1. 99 2. 11 1. 98 .962 1. 071 . 927 1 5 2. 36 .994 1 1. 00 5 5. 00 1. 96 2. 1345 .888 . 73543 BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 31 Table 4. 14 Descriptive statistics for Brand Awareness Descriptive Statistics N I know what the hotel? s physical appearance looks like.I am aware of the hotel. I can recognize the hotel among other competing brands. Brand Awareness Valid N (listwise) 215 Minimum Maximum 1 5 Mean 2. 07 Std. Deviation . 783 215 215 1 1 5 5 2. 06 1. 93 .923 . 812 215 215 1. 00 5. 00 2. 0202 .73349 Table 4. 15 Descriptive statistics for Brand Association Descriptive Statistics N Some characteristics of the 215 hotel come to my mind quickly. I can quickly recall the symbol 215 or logo of the hotel. I do not have difficulty 215 imagining the hotel in my mind. Brand Association Valid N (listwise) 215 215 Minimum Maximum 1 4 Mean 2. 13 Std. Deviation . 921 1 1 5 5 . 38 2. 14 .968 1. 351 1. 00 4. 00 2. 2171 .77835 Table 4. 16 Descriptive statistics for Perceived Value Descriptive Statistics N The hotel is good value for money. The price shown for the hotel is acceptable. The hotel appears to be a bargain. Perceived Value Valid N (listwise) 215 215 215 215 215 Minimum Maximum 1 1 1 1. 00 5 5 5 5. 00 Mean 2. 23 2. 48 2. 67 2. 4589 Std. Deviation 1. 023 1. 380 . 990 . 82235 BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 32 Table 4. 17 Descriptive statistics for Revisit Intention Descriptive Statistics I plan to revisit the hotel. N 215 Minimum Maximum Mean 1 5 2. 2 1 5 2. 05 Std. Deviation . 940 . 918 The probability that I 215 would consider revisiting the hotel is high. Revisit Intentions Valid N (listwise) 215 215 1. 00 5. 00 2. 1372 .86926 The following points are noticeable from the above tables. Firstly for the individual variables the best positive score is for the question – â€Å" I can recognize the brand among competing brand† while the most negative score was for the question – â€Å"I will not visit other brands if the hotel has no room available† which actually signifies the urgency of staying in any hotel accommodation if there is no room available in this brand.Secondly in comparison of each of the dimensional score Brand Awareness had the best positive score followed by Perceived Quality, Revisit Intention, Brand Association, Perceived Value and Brand Loyalty in this order. This signified that people? s perception were most positive towards Brand Awareness and the least towards Brand Loyalty. COMPARISON AMONG THE THREE SEGMENTS Now a comparison among the three segments has been shown through the following 3 tables : Table 4. 18 Descriptive statistics for the Budget Category Descriptive Statisticsa Minimum Maximum 1. 00 5. 00 1. 58 5. 00 1. 00 4. 00 1. 00 4. 00 1 . 33 3. 98 1. 00 5. 0 1. 00 5. 00 a. Hotel Segment = Budget BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 33 Brand Loyalty Perceived Quality Brand Awareness Brand Association Brand Equity Perceived Value Revisit Intentions Valid N (listwise) N 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 Mean 2. 9500 2. 4969 1. 9958 2. 1833 2. 4065 2. 4833 2. 3438 Std. Deviation . 82694 . 72726 . 64630 . 72702 . 57637 1. 03239 1. 01443 Table 4. 19 Descriptive statistics for the Mid-Price Category Descriptive Statisticsa N Brand Loyalty Perceived Quality Brand Awareness Brand Association Brand Equity Perceived Value Revisit Intentions Valid N (listwise) 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 75 a.Hotel Segment = Mid-Price Minimum 1. 00 1. 00 1. 00 1. 00 1. 25 1. 00 1. 00 Maximum 5. 00 4. 42 5. 00 3. 67 3. 67 5. 00 5. 00 Mean 2. 5333 1. 9833 1. 9956 2. 2533 2. 1914 2. 4889 2. 0333 Std. Deviation . 81833 . 75162 . 75036 . 79003 . 54355 . 73180 . 82746 : Table 4. 20 Descriptive statistics for the Upscale Category Descriptive Statistic sa N Brand Loyalty Perceived Quality Brand Awareness Brand Association Brand Equity Perceived Value Revisit Intentions Valid N (listwise) 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 a. Hotel Segment = Upscale Minimum 1. 33 1. 00 1. 00 1. 00 1. 29 1. 00 1. 00 Maximum 4. 33 3. 75 5. 00 3. 67 3. 60 4. 00 3. 50 Mean 2. 944 1. 8403 2. 0833 2. 2167 2. 1837 2. 3889 1. 9917 Std. Deviation . 74179 . 49983 . 82482 . 83885 . 47957 . 58919 . 64105 The above tables have important ramifications. It reveals that for Brand Loyalty the best score is for the Mid-Price and worst for Budget. For Perceived Quality following in the logical order the best score is for Upscale and the least for budget. For Brand Awareness the best score is for the mid-price and the worst surprisingly for the Upscale segment. For Brand Association the best positive score is for the budget and the least for the upscale segment. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 4 Overall if we notice Brand equity as a sum of these 4 dimension s the best positive score is for the Upscale category with a mean of 2. 1837 followed by Mid-price and then Budget. Moreover for Perceived value surprisingly the perceptions are most positive for Upscale hotels and least for mid-price properties. Lastly the revisit intention is most positive for Upscale hotels and least for Budget Hotels. 4. 5 COMPARISON CORRELATION OF THE THREE SEGMENTS THROUGH Bivariate correlation tests were used to compare the 4 dimensions of brand equity, perceived value and revisit intentions across the three segments.The impact and the importance of variables was studied and compared. Table 4. 21 Correlation for Budget Category Correlationsa Brand Perceived Brand Associatio Perceived Revisit Quality Awareness n Value Intentions . 652** . 489** . 338** . 432** . 652** Brand Loyalty Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) Brand Loyalty 1 .000 .000 .002 .000 .000 Perceived Quality N Pearson Correlation 80 . 652** 80 1 80 . 500** 80 . 347** 80 . 520** 80 . 818** Sig. (2-tailed) . 000 .000 .002 .000 .000 Brand Awareness N Pearson Correlation 80 . 489** 80 . 500** 80 1 80 . 645** 80 . 401** 80 . 588** Sig. 2-tailed) . 000 .000 .000 .000 .000 N 80 80 80 80 80 80 35 BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS Brand Pearson Association Correlation .338** .347** .645** 1 .486** .494** Sig. (2-tailed) . 002 .002 .000 .000 .000 N 80 80 80 80 80 80 Perceived Value Pearson Correlation .432** .520** .401** .486** 1 .631** Sig. (2-tailed) . 000 .000 .000 .000 .000 N 80 80 80 80 80 80 Revisit Intentions Pearson Correlation .652** .818** .588** .494** .631** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) . 000 .000 .000 .000 .000 N 80 80 80 80 80 80 **. Correlation is significant at the 0. 01 level (2-tailed). a.Hotel Segment = Budget This table shows the correlations between the 4 dimensions of brand equity, perceived value and revisit intention for the Budget segment. For Perceived Value the correlation is strongest with Perceived Quality in the Brand Equity domain while with Revisit Intention it is 0. 631 which is the strongest of all components. With respect to revisit intention the strongest correlation has been with perceived quality while the weakest with Brand Association. Moreover all the correlations are positive and significant. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 6 Table 4. 22 Correlation for Mid-Price Category Correlationsa Brand Perceived Brand Brand Perceived Revisit Loyalty Quality Awareness Association Value Intentions Brand Loyalty Pearson Correlation 1 . 619** . 000 75 1 . 251* . 030 75 . 486** . 000 75 1 -. 035 . 764 75 . 240* . 038 75 . 377** . 001 75 1 . 268* . 020 75 . 416** . 000 75 . 283* . 014 75 . 448** . 000 75 1 . 549** . 000 75 . 707** . 000 75 . 486** . 000 75 . 514** . 000 75 . 508** . 000 75 1 Sig. (2-tailed) N Perceived Pearson Quality Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Brand Pearson Awareness Correlation Sig. 2-tailed) N Brand Pearson Association Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Perceived Pearson Value Correlati on Sig. (2-tailed) N Revisit Pearson Intentions Correlation 75 . 619** . 000 75 . 251* . 030 75 -. 035 . 764 75 . 268* . 020 75 . 549** 75 . 486** . 000 75 . 240* . 038 75 . 416** . 000 75 . 707** 75 . 377** . 001 75 . 283* . 014 75 . 486** 75 . 448** . 000 75 . 514** 75 . 508** Sig. (2-tailed) . 000 . 000 . 000 . 000 . 000 N 75 75 75 75 75 **. Correlation is significant at the 0. 01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0. 05 level (2-tailed). a. Hotel Segment = Mid-Price 75This table shows the correlations between the 4 dimensions of brand equity, perceived value and revisit intention for the Mid-Price segment. For Perceived Value the correlation is strongest with Brand Association in the brand Equity domain while with Revisit Intentions it is 0. 508. With respect to revisit intention the strongest correlation has been with perceived quality while the weakest with Brand Awareness. Moreover apart from the correlation between Brand Awareness and Brand Loyalty all th e correlations are positive and significant. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 7 Table 4. 23 Correlation for Upscale Category Correlationsa Brand Loyalty Brand Loyalty Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) Perceived Quality N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N 60 . 438** . 000 60 . 173 . 186 60 -. 183 . 161 60 . 100 . 448 60 . 064 . 627 60 1 Perceived Brand Brand Perceived Revisit Quality Awareness Association Value Intentions . 438** . 000 60 1 . 173 . 186 60 . 407** . 001 60 1 -. 183 . 161 60 . 309* . 16 60 . 428** . 001 60 1 . 100 . 448 60 . 378** . 003 60 . 502** . 000 60 . 634** . 000 60 1 . 064 . 627 60 . 329* . 010 60 . 509** . 000 60 . 739** . 000 60 . 652** . 000 60 1 Brand Awareness 60 . 407** . 001 60 . 309* . 016 60 . 378** . 003 60 . 329* . 010 60 Brand Association 60 . 428** . 001 60 . 502** . 000 60 . 509** . 000 60 Perceived Value 60 . 634** . 000 60 . 739** . 000 60 Revisit Intentions 60 . 652** . 000 60 60 **. Correlation is significant at the 0. 01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0. 05 level (2-tailed). a. Hotel Segment = UpscaleThis table shows the correlations between the 4 dimensions of brand equity, perceived value and revisit intention for the upscale segment. For Perceived Value the correlation is strongest with Brand Association in the brand Equity domain while with Revisit Intentions it is 0. 652. With respect to revisit intention the strongest correlation has been with Brand Association while the weakest with Brand Loyalty. Moreover the glaring part in this category is that the correlations between Brand Loyalty and Perceived Value and Brand Loyalty and Revisit Intention have not been found to be significant.BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 38 Table 4. 24 Correlation for all the three segments Correlations Brand Loyalty 1 Perceived Brand Brand Perceived Revisit Quality Awareness Association Value Intentions . 618** . 293** . 048 . 306** . 517** . 000 215 1 . 000 215 . 409** . 000 215 1 . 486 215 . 256** . 000 215 . 474** . 000 215 1 . 000 215 . 432** . 000 215 . 362** . 000 215 . 485** . 000 215 1 . 000 215 . 703** . 000 215 . 498** . 000 215 . 527** . 000 215 . 590** . 000 215 1 Brand Loyalty Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. 2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Perceived Quality 215 . 618** . 000 215 . 293** . 000 215 . 048 . 486 215 . 306** . 000 215 . 517** . 000 Brand Awareness 215 . 409** . 000 215 . 256** . 000 215 . 432** . 000 215 . 703** . 000 Brand Association 215 . 474** . 000 215 . 362** . 000 215 . 498** . 000 Perceived Value 215 . 485** . 000 215 . 527** . 000 Revisit Intentions 215 . 590** . 000 215 215 215 215 215 **. Correlation is significant at the 0. 01 level (2-tailed). 215This table shows the correlations between the 4 dimensions of brand equity, perceived value and revisit intentions in the three segments combined that is for the whole sample. For Perceived Value the correlation is strongest with Brand Association followed by perceived quality in the brand Equity domain while with Revisit Intentions it is 0. 590. With respect to revisit intention the strongest correlation has been with Perceived Quality while the weakest with Brand Awareness. Apart from the correlations between Brand Loyalty and Brand Association, rest are significant. BRAND EQUITY, PERCEIVED VALUE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS 9 4. 7 TESTING THE IMPACT OF BRAND EQUITY In this section Regression has been used to study the impact of Brand Equity Dimensions and Perceived Value and Revisit Intentions. In regression the Stepwise Method has been used to stepwise ascertain which all dimensions of Brand Equity have the highest impact and