Issues in Testing Very Young Children

Testing children has grown both more aggressive and widespread in recent times as concerning issues have arisen as to the pressure these tests and parents put into a child. In fact some kindergartens have been testing children before enrolling them. This might be appropiate for college but for children! In my opinion that’s just too aggressive teachers! Surprisingly this type of testing has occurred for a long time. What’s really surprising is that this has been going on for the past 30 or so years ever since educational testing first became popular in the early 1900’s. However while noting that some early childhood testing were usefull, researchers have pointed out that tests tend to be more or less reliable at very early ages. This and other concerns have led to some changed in thinking and practice over the years. In 1998, a group of experts reviewed existing research and practice on the assessment of young children and recommended that: â€Å"†¦screening tests should not be used as readiness tests to exclude children from school; they should not be used to track children by ability in kindergarten and first grade; and they should not be used to plan instruction unless a valid relationship with local curricula has been established. † The cautions of the previously mentioned researchers resulted in the delaying of tests in most public schools until the 3rd grade. The 2011 No child left behind act required school testing in mathematics, reading/language arts and science, starting the third grade. Nonetheless, a number of private schools, including religious schools, do require entering kindergarteners to pass a test as part of their admission requirements. An example is N. E. S who require 4th graders to take a test onto which they place them later on in 5th and 6th grades in different mathematic sets. Furthermore at 6th grade, 6th graders are required to take another test of both English and mathematics to determine later levels in those areas in N. E. S’s high school also known as their ‘Senior’ department. What guidelines have been established for assessing young children? In 1998, the ‘goal 1’ childhood assessment resource group recommended to the national education goals panel the following guidelines for the assessment of young children: 1. Before age 8, standardized achievement measures are not sufficiently accurate to be used for high stakes decision-making about individual children and schools. Therefore, high-stakes assessments intended for accountability purposes should be delayed until the end of third grade (or preferably fourth grade). . †¦[prior to the third grade] policymakers at the state and district level could reasonably require that teachers and the schools have procedures in place to monitor student progress using instructionally relevant assessments, and that schools have a plan for providing intensified special help if children are having difficulty, especially learning t o read. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) offers a general rule for testing young children: The purpose of testing must be to improve services for children and ensure that children benefit from their educational experiences. † Specific NAEYC guidelines support the use of more than just test scores for assessing young children. They emphasize that decisions that have a major impact on children, such as enrollment, retention, or assignment to remedial or special classes, should be based on multiple sources of information and should never be based on a single test score. Resources: 1)NAEYC –http://www. naeyc. org/– 2)Wiki 3)Google

Pride and Prejudice: Letter to Mrs Elizabeth Bennet Essay

Several days ago, I deemed to explain to you the idea of an ‘accomplished’ woman, conversely due to the lack of explanation the description conveyed was rather uninformative and tedious. Consequently, I write in another attempt to clarify my points, as I am not one who is virtuous at expressing myself verbally. Women are to be perfect with a decent family background, impeccable manners and perfect etiquette. Though an ‘accomplished’ woman must also have talents in music, drawing, dancing and a modern language to deserve the word. Such expected features apply to the women of your class. Miss Bennet, on that day at Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s estate, I listened vigilantly to the pianoforte being played by you and observed that it requires practice. Such perfection is highly required to those who play the pianoforte, as this justifies you to be an ‘accomplished’ woman. Miss Bennet, as you may know, women of this century must marry and obey men, as we hold all the resources. You and others of your kind have no independent means of subsistence. However, if the woman disapproves on marrying a man, then she will be critically discriminated from both the family and the public. Moreover, very little choice is offered to the women since their possessions, inheritances and earnings become treasures to us men at marriage. Essentially you do not gain anything beside a husband. Conversely, this is not part of the role of becoming an ‘accomplished’ woman but rather what you have to offer to pleasure men. In terms of career, the possibility for you to have a profession is rather low. With strict legislation towards education for women, many courses are barred from allowing the female sex in university. Though, if you truly desire to partake a profession, then a pathway to being a teacher would hold you in the most respectable position in our society. Nonetheless, these offers are only available to the brightest student of age 13 or upward. Nevertheless, women of the upper class, yourself included, would find it more preferable to remain at home and practice perfecting each of the obligations to fulfill the role of an ‘accomplished’ woman. Miss Bennet, this is my idea of an ‘accomplished’ woman. If you are able to fulfill such requests and obligations, then you will become the perfect woman in this society, consequently all men will select you as their wife.

Art History Formal Analysis – Comparison

Formal Analysis Paper The pieces Ann Whitley Russell, done by an unknown artist in around 1820 and Lady Frances Knowles, also done by an unknown artist, in the mid-late 17th century are both examples of portraits that portray the sitters in diverse yet insightful ways to viewers. Both Ann Whitley Russell and Lady Frances Knowles are works of art composed of oil paint on canvas. Although these portraits are different, the aspects of space, color, and composition are all important elements that must be considered while comparing the woman in these two pieces.The significant element of space comes into play while analyzing the portrait of Ann Whitley Russell. The figure of Ann Whitley Russell herself is very flat and appears to be two dimensional, rather than three. The two dimensionalism of this portrait says something about the skill level and amount of training that this unknown artist holds; they were most likely self-trained. Since there is a shallow depth of field in this piece th e viewer is automatically drawn to the sitter, Ann Whitley Russell, who is positioned in the foreground of this piece.Ann Whitley Russell is illustrated sitting on a chair with a decorative cloth draped over the left arm, which is positioned in the middle ground of the portrait. The background is monochrome, blurry and is indistinguishable to make out other than the column to the side of the portrait. The column looks as if the artist based it on Greek and Roman architecture due to its rounded appearance and indented texture. These columns would have been found in Europe throughout the early to mid eighteen hundreds, which was around the same time that this portrait was created.By including this type of column in the background the artist may be trying to portray the sitter, Ann Whitley Russell, as someone who is elite, wealthy and privileged enough to live in a place where this type of architecture exists. Although the artist made this column visible, it is still impossible to dete ct a specific setting in the background of this portrait. Furthermore, although the significance of the element of space also effects how viewers perceive the portrait of Lady Frances Knowles it does so in a different way.The viewer is automatically drawn to the center of this piece, which is the vivid three-dimensional figure of the sitter, Lady Frances Knowles. While studying the portrait Lady Frances Knowles I was able to detect a clear distinguishable foreground, middle ground and background. The artist positions the sitter in the foreground of the piece sitting on a stone bench with one arm resting upon the ledge of a stone fountain which is positioned in the middle ground.The stone fountain in the middle ground which has a statue of a Roman mythological winged figure attached has water flowing down from it and appears to be solid in space and volumetric due to this. The statue of a winged figure appears to be an angel, which is a symbol of love, peace, and protection. The back ground of this piece has trees with flowering leaves which may be where the flowers upon the lap of Lady Frances Knowles and the bench she is sitting on came from.The background seems to be slightly shallower compared to the sitter who is lifelike and three-dimensional. The background is less defined than the sitter is however the trees, fountain and flowers are distinguishable and give evidence that she must be sitting somewhere outside. The artist may have positioned the sitter somewhere outside in order to show the importance of nature and natural beauty because the sitter herself is so naturally beautiful.The artist of Lady Frances Knowles and of Ann Whitley Russell both use space to visually demonstrate what type of person the sitter is in the portrait, even though the way the space is represented is different in both. Another very important aspect that must be considered during the analysis of the portrait of Ann Whitley Russell is color. In this portrait the artist tends to u se a narrow array of colors that are bland and monotonous. The artist uses the same colors of black, white, brown, grey and red throughout the entire piece.The background is incredibly dull and the shades of brown get darker as it moves further away from her head. In this portrait the red is only bright and exciting color, it is found used for the plain velvet looking chair, the red accents on the cloth draped over the chair, the stone in the center of her necklace and the thin line of lipstick on Ann Whitley Russell’s lips. The black of the sitters dress contrasts her pale white skin and due to the incredibly dull background color more attention is given to her.By using these colors the artist shows how although Ann Whitley Russell is a woman of great wealth, she is a plain woman and instead of embellishing her with vibrant colors he focused on maintaining the sitters true essence. Additionally, while analyzing the portrait of Lady Frances Knowles the importance of color is also used however it is to express different meanings. It is easy to see that the artist of this piece finds color very important due to the vast color pallet he uses in order to contrast the colors of the sitters dress and her skin tones.The pallet consists of a diverse amount of blue, white, pink, red, grey, brown, and black shades, which are used to illustrate the sitter and her surroundings. The artist uses flowing brush strokes to engage viewers in Lady Frances Knowles, a strong example of these brush strokes can be seen in the sitters long brown flowing hair that she is trying to show off. The background of the portrait, which contains a variety of red and pink accents against a darker black background, deeply contrasts the white and pink shades of the sitters skin tone and the shades of blue on the sitters dress.Shadowing is used on the skirt and sleeves of the sitters dress to create realistic folds and wrinkles in the expensive fabric. The shades of red and pink are used fo r the flowers held by and surrounding Lady Frances Knowles, and are emblems representing femininity, beauty and fertility. The artists use color in contrasted ways in the portraits of Lady Frances Knowles and Ann Whitley Russell in order to illustrate the sitter’s unique personal attributes. The aspect of composition is one of great value while discussing the portrait of Ann Whitley Russell.Ann Whitley Russell’s figure takes up the majority of the piece and viewers are pulled into the portrait by the way the sitter’s head is slightly tilted in a contrapposto pose causing her gaze to fall upon us. The way the artist positioned the sitter with both of her arms resting over one of the arms of the chair seems uncomfortable and awkward, however this may have been seen as a proper way of sitting in 1820. Ann Whitley Russell’s portrait is a half body portrait from the waist up rather than a full body portrait that would have been more expensive at the time.The a rtist also focuses on the importance of lines by making them very defined so the viewer is able to depict where everything is easily. Due to the blurred and empty space in the background the sitter appears to be placed in an empty environment the artist may have done as to draw more attention to the subject (the sitter). Moreover, while analyzing the use of composition again in the Lady Frances Knowles portrait it is evident that it’s use is different.The artist gains the viewers full attention by the way the sitters face is held up gently by her hand and her soft eyes connect with the gaze of the viewer, drawing us even closer to the work of art. The way the artist positioned the sitter looks as if the sitter is going to get up at any moment due to how comfortable and relaxed her position is. The figure is directly centered with the background however her arm resting on the edge of the fountain on the side brings the main focus from herself to the intricate fountain.The back ground of the portrait is cluttered and the brush strokes are heavy and dark so the viewer will keep their focus on the sitter rather than the background. The proportions of the sitter in the portrait are accurate and almost entire the body of the sitter is portrayed, showing how she is willing to pay more for something more elegant. The artists for Ann Whitley Russell and Lady Frances Knowles both communicate diverse and very distinct characteristics about the sitter to viewers through the use of composition.After analyzing both of these portraits in excessive detail I have found that although they are unique in a variety of ways, both artists concentrations of work are the same. Some contrasts between the two portraits are that Ann Whitley Russell is two dimensional with a bland color pallet and is a half body portrait; while Lady Frances Knowles is three dimensional with a broad expanse of a color pallet and it is almost a full body portrait. The use of the elements space, color, and composition all influenced how the artists created the portraits of Ann Whitley Russell and Lady Frances Knowles and the themes within them.The unknown artist of the Ann Whitley Russell portrait used all three elements in order to illustrate how the sitter is a simple woman yet wealthy and elite as well. In the portrait of Lady Frances Knowles the artist, who is also unknown, uses these aspects to portray the natural beauty, femininity and wealth. Both themes are similar because they relate to how both sitters for each portrait aspired to be portrayed by the artists as attractive and wealthy.

Leadership in Health Care Organizations Practicum Coursework - 9

Leadership in Health Care Organizations Practicum - Coursework Example She was not an authoritarian figure but was rather a servant leader. She noticed my anxiety immediately and she empathized. She kept on assuring me that everyone has jitters on her first day including herself and there was nothing to be anxious about. She was very comforting and accommodating in my mistakes and rather than reprimand me for them, she was quick to give me a break to recollect my thoughts and calm down. She was a good listener and she often listened to the patients and the other nurses patiently. In case of any squabbles, she would listen keenly to all sides before making any judgment. This was unlike my previous supervisors who were quick to punish and pick sides so as to deal quickly with the matter and move on. She extended the same servant leadership to the rest of the hospital staff including the subordinate staffs without discrimination (Spears, 2010). Her main goal other than see her patients received the best health care and recovered was ensuring the growth of other people. This she did through making people realize their inner ability and strength and how they can use that to further their personal and professional development. It is this leadership skill in her that made me consider furthering my education and she pushed me and encouraged me to do so. Most individuals in power positions but who are not servant leaders are not concerned about empowering those under them. They are not really concerned about the future of an employee as long as they perform their daily chores as required of them. Having a leader who is therefore committed to growth of the employees was therefore a new thing to me to not only see but understand as well and this made me appreciate my supervisor even more. Her humane spirit and ability was topped up her exemplary role and ability as a servant leader. She had a way that would repair broken hearts and spirits (DelHousaye and Brewer, 2004). This was not only because of her ability

Applying Theory to Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Applying Theory to Practice - Essay Example Applying Theory to Practice Globally the nursing profession was facing a great number of problems in patients. Pain was just one of the many complaints but it was a significant and widespread one. Pain was a physiological complaint which distressed patients by the unpleasant sensation with affective experience (Peterson and Bedrow, 2008). In spite of pain assessment, appropriate management, evaluatory monitoring and educational research having been included in important guidelines like those from the Joint Commission and the National Guidelines ClearingHouse, the under-treatment and negligent management of acute and chronic pain were still evident (Bines and Paice, 2005). The words of Gillaspie (2010) conveyed the depth of the problem: â€Å"The delivery of effective pain management has become a pressing national issue in healthcare†. Patients had a right to be managed for pain relief (Zalon, 2008). The problem of pain management has thereby been identified by me as my practic e problem. The nursing profession has several theories by which the problems in patient care were managed. Similarly I would be employing a theory to execute effective pain management in my hospital. The theory would be logical for application and concurrent with observations made daily. It would be similar to those previously used in successful programs. Past research would have supported this theory (Croyle, 2005). It would contain the highlights of the nursing profession. Foundations for nursing practice would be made. Generation of better knowledge would be remembered. The direction into which the nursing profession was to develop would be indicated. Patient care would be made better, professional growth would be enhanced, interpersonal communications among the nurses would be motivated for improvement, and guidance would evolve for education and research. The multidisciplinary approach to health care would be targeted. Criteria which improved the quality of care would continuou sly be identified. Middle-range theories promoted nursing practice by helping to understand the behavior of the client, suggesting useful interventions and offering credible explanations for the efficacy of the interventions (Peterson and Bedrow, 2008). The practice theory could be built up from the critical reflection of experiences. The purpose of the paper is to identify a middle range theory for my selected practice problem of management of pain and then use a borrowed theory to manage the same symptom of pain. Rationale for selection The commonest reason for patients seeking help from nurses was pain. The unpleasant sensation could cause the patient to even lose consciousness. The overwhelming effect could produce long-term adversities (Peterson and Bedrow, 2008). Wound healing became delayed and the immune system lost its activity. Metastasis of tumor cells could also occur. Acute pain was noticed in wounds or injuries, following surgery, in labor and in sickle cell crisis. Ch ronic pain was evident in skeletal muscle illnesses and gastrointestinal conditions. Hospital procedures like lumbar puncture, venipuncture and removal of chest tubes were accompanied by pain (Peterson and Bedrow). Infants suffered from pain in critically ill conditions or when close to death. The enormous extent of pain faced by the nursing profession was an indication for nurses to learn all the methods of relieving it. Clinical pain had a holistic and emotional

Elaborate on your work experience as a math tutor Personal Statement

Elaborate on your work experience as a math tutor - Personal Statement Example I remember the time when I tutored a 9th grade girl who always had bad experiences with Math. As a tutor, I learned that aside from helping students deal with Math, it is essential that a tutor should also give encouragement. Based from experience, this student was afraid of Math because she was not confident of her answers and that she feared making mistakes. I encouraged this student by encouraging her to exert some efforts to understand the problem and take one small step at a time. By boosting her confidence and telling her that she could do it, I actually changed her self-concept from being pessimistic to an optimistic in terms of developing a ‘can do’ attitude, especially in solving math problems. I have been tutoring for four years and I teach 2nd grade through PreCalculus. I would like to continue being a Math tutor because I want to help children in need. I would like also to help other people who want to succeed in life. My ambitions of why I would still remain as a Math tutor are not to make money but to pursue higher education to expand the pool of people I could help and thereby be a contributing member of the academe and community for

Services Based Organisation Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Services Based Organisation Report - Essay Example These developmental processes include coaching, mentoring, eLearning, action learning and blended learning (Becker and Gerhart, 2009). This paper is focused on the employee development of a firm on the grounds of eLearning and how it has been improved over the years to foster employee development and using organisational resources efficiently. The purpose of the human resource management department is not only to look after the employee acquisition and performance level, but also to ensure that the firm is able to improve the employees’ skills and knowledge. An organization with a high skilled employee base is most likely to yield a higher performance level than its competitors. Therefore, it is vital for a firm to engage in employee development to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals (Baumruk and Gorman, 2009). The advent of globalization has made the global business market a more open place; this as a result has also increased the competitiveness of the industry. Therefore the companies constantly seek out new ways to improve their operational and production process so that they can stay ahead of their competitors (Eunmi, 2009). The traditional way to achieve this is to invest in high end manufacturing process and infrastructure. The firms often overlook the importance of the individuals who run the opera tional process. Moreover, owing to the myopic vision of the organization, it is caught up in achieving short term goals only, which as a result deviates the focus from the employees. This as a result reduces the productivity and efficiency of the firm as well as the chances of its sustainability (Sugumaran, 2008). Currie and Kerrin (2010) have stated that one of the effective ways of improving the productivity of the employees is to provide them with proper training. It can be defined as the planned effort of the organization to improve the competencies and knowledge base of the employees, which includes the

The FSISs Public Health Information System Essay

The FSISs Public Health Information System - Essay Example The committee further recommended that FSIS collect extensive information regarding meat and poultry labeling and consumer protection. As stated by the Institute for Homeland Security Solutions (2009), the national security of the United States depends on a safe and secure food supply; food that is free of contamination. In 2006, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act was passed by both the White House and Congress. The Act established a goal of near-real-time information to enhance rapid response to public health threats to minimize their impact. To meet such a challenge, public health and safety organizations need to enhance their ability to collect, analyze, and disseminate health information across the organization. Liu & Wein (2008) and Zink (2004) have raised concerns that it is only a matter of time before the United States begins experiencing instances of major food terrorism. Earlier in this century, Sobel, Griffith, Slutsker, Swerdlow & Tauxe observed that the inform ation environment and informatics tools that were used then tended to follow jurisdiction boundaries. They further observed that these boundaries worked against efforts to reduce inherent latencies. One good example of the effects of these boundaries is the 2008 peanut butter contamination. In November 2008, the Center for Disease Control confirmed clusters of Salmonella Typhimurium (IHSS, 2009). Two months later, investigations associated Salmonella Typhimurium with peanut butter contamination.

Piezometers( to measure the water table to monitoring landslide) Essay

Piezometers( to measure the water table to monitoring landslide) - Essay Example Appropriate design of drainage system is possible only if the water flow pattern within the rock mass is understood; and for this purpose, the measurement of hydraulic conductivity and water pressure are carried out. Piezometers are used for measuring water pressure within a slope in order to control the stability of the slope by drainage. Piezometers are devices that are sealed within the ground, generally in boreholes. They respond only to ground water pressure in the immediate vicinity and not to ground water pressure at other locations. Piezometers can also be used to measure the in situ hydraulic conductivity of rock masses, using variable head tests (Wyllie et al, 2004: 120). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of piezometers in preventing landslides, identify the different types of piezometers, examine the advantages and disadvantages of each type of piezometer, compare the type of soil that they can be used in, and their applications. Piezometers measure groundwater pressures, which is useful for â€Å"effective stress stability analyses of landslides and to observe the variation of pore pressure vertically in the landslide† (Cornforth, 2005: 82). Certain factors have to be taken into consideration when planning a piezometer installation to measure water pressures in a rock slope. It is important that the drill hole should intersect the discontinuities in which the ground water is likely to be flowing. For example, the hole should intersect the persistent beds in sedimentary rock which has low persistence joints. Zones of fractured or sheared rock should be located for positioning the completion zone of the piezometer, since ground water flow would be more concentrated in these areas. The length of the completion zone in rock is usually longer than in soil, because of the requirement to intersect discontinuities. Fault zones are geological features; if they contain crushed rock

Marketing and Business plan Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Marketing and Business plan - Coursework Example Services will be delivered to customers from the central office and at customers’ preferred location. Staff that will be hired will be trained to meet customers courteously and only those personals will be added to the team who are qualified and licensed architects. The Angles will focus on creating convenience and value for the customers. The advertising strategies will focus on print media as a medium to create awareness and promote offers and discounts to the target market. The target market will comprise of people belonging to the income levels of  £ 25,000 per annum. As understood by the management that architectural service is a onetime expense, The Angles will provide its customers with services at premium prices keeping in view the potential of target market. The Angles will be operate by the owner, Alex Ferguson, who is a qualified architect from Leeds and have experience of running businesses. He also has an experience of working in an architectural firm. The management of The Angles will minimize the operating costs by hiring employees according to the need of time. In this section, a comprehensive analysis of competitors in the architecture industry of UK, threat of new entrants, threat from buyers, threat from suppliers and threat of substitute products are presented (Hill and Jones 2009). The Angles would consider two architectural businesses in London as its major competitors. First one is the Designs, located in Central London. This architectural business offers one of the best services to its customer base dispersed all over UK and provides both online and personal visit facility to its customer base. The second major competitor of The Angles is Art Horizon which provides architecture services and consultation. The Art Horizon is specialized in providing architectural solutions to its customers keeping in view the demands of the modern times and the customers are provided with visual projection of their

Hydraulic fracking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Hydraulic fracking - Essay Example Fracking or hydraulic fracturing is the procedure of drilling natural gas out of shale rock layers profound within the ground. This process makes it feasible to produce natural gas drilling in shale layers that were once inaccessible with traditional technologies (Heywood 42-45). Fracking is one subject that has brought lots of controversies in regard to it being an answer to the energy crisis the world is facing or a disaster for the environment (4News 1-2). The controversies are acceptable since they assist in analyzing the process further and make proper adjustments. A report by 4news early this year reported a statement made by David Cameron in support for Fracking process. Cameron said that shale is significant for UK. He asserted that the shale gas could bring 74,000 jobs, more than  £3bn of investment, provide the people with a cheaper energy for the future, and boost the country’s energy security (4News 1-2). Cameron said this after being convinced by the institute of Directors claims that shale gas might generate over seventy four thousand jobs. Geologists, construction workers, engineers, truck drivers, business analysts and public relations employees are samples of the employees required by the production as well as equipment manufacturer s, cement and steel manufacturers, and drilling services corporations (Heywood 42-45). To counterbalance Cameron support for Fracking, 4news article provided an anti-fracking protester’s claim. The protester provided an extract associated with Fracking in US (4News 1-2). It stated that the US had evidently demonstrated fracking as hazardous, unhelpful and devastates societies. Considering the circumstances, this will be the scenario in UK, if the process is embraced. The protester noted that only one well had been drilled and fracked in UK and it caused earthquakes that destroyed the well so chemicals and gas leaked out. This

Turture Case Essay Example for Free

Turture Case Essay This world is full of crimes and war. There isn’t one country out there that doesn’t have some sort of confliction with other countries. Is it normal? Is it ok to be committing all these war crimes? Honestly there isn’t any reasonable answer for that. Several people argue differently about the situation on war crimes. The author of â€Å"Thinking about Torture†, also film critic for National Review, and author of many other books; Ross Douthat talks about what he thinks about war crimes, which he believes they are not correct but the war crimes could be justified. In the other hand the author of â€Å"Committing War Crimes for the ‘Right Reasons’†, Glenn Greenwald who was also a constitutional law and civil rights lawyer has his own opinion. He believes war crimes are not acceptable for any reason. Sometimes it’s difficult to decide what side is correct. The question here is, is torture ok? In â€Å"Thinking about Torture†, Douthat writes â€Å"It doesn’t excuse what was done by our government, and in our name, in prisons, in detentions, cells around the world. But anyone who felt the way I felt after 9/11 has to reckon with the fact that what was done in our name was, in some sense, done for us.† This illustrates that Douthat has somewhat mixed feelings about torture. He feels that there is no excuse for the use of torture and what the government has done. But the way he felt after the attack of 9/11 what the government did was done for us to feel some form of justice. In â€Å"Committing War Crimes for the ‘Right Reasons†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢, Greenwald makes it clear when he states â€Å"but we don’t accept that justifying reasoning when offered by other. In fact those who seek merely to explain – let alone justified the – the tyranny, extremism and/or violence of Castro, or Chavez, or Ha mas, or Slobodan Milosevic or Islamic extremists are immediately condemned for seeking to defend the indefensible, or invoking â€Å"root causes† to justify the unjustifiable, or offering mitigating rationale for pure evil.† With this he is saying that many people will always find some kind of defense to justify the use of torture, but in reality there is no justification for an act of malevolence. Douthat finds justifications to the tortures that could reasonable to some while Greenwald finds no justification and believes the excuses are poor. Even though Douthat and Greenwald may have different views they also have some similarities. They both agree in some way that it is not correct. Douthat states in paragraph 9, â€Å"here I am more comfortable saying straightforwardly that this should never have been allowed – that it should be considered impermissible as well as immoral, and that it should involve disgrace for those responsible, the Cheneys and Rumsfelds as well as the people who actually implemented the techniques that the Vice President’s office promoted and the Secretary of Defense signed off on.† Douthat is stating that the torture should have not taken place at all to beg in with and is unforgiveable. The people behind all of this should be ashamed of their actions. Greenwald states in paragraph 12, â€Å"What determines whether a political leader is good or evil isn’t their nationality. It’s their conduct. And leaders, who violate the laws of war and commit war crimes, by definition, aren’t good, even if they are American.† Greenwald is simply and clearly is stating that it doesn’t matter what nationality a leader is from to determine whether they are good or bad leaders, but what determines if they are good or bad leaders are by their actions. They both agree that a leader should be responsible with what actions they choose. And if a leader chooses an unpleasant action they should be ashamed and considered terrible leaders. As people may have their own views and opinions like Douthat and Greenwald one finding a justification for torture and the other finding no excuse for it. Everyone will always have their own view, opinion, and answer, but at the end the real answer will never be known. For example Douthat could convince with the justifications he finds but Greenwald will also convince some on how there is no justification. The correct decision should always be chosen to avoid all this conflicts some people will argue. But how does somebody actually what the â€Å"correct† choice is? With people like Douthat and Greenwald arguing their sides it’s difficult to choose the correct one.

The London Ambulance Service Computer Information Technology Essay

The London Ambulance Service Computer Information Technology Essay This paper will analyze one of the most prominent computerized system failures in the past 10 years- the failure of the London Ambulance Service Computer Aided Dispatch system-hereafter referred to as LASCAD. Unlike the common one dimensional explanations for system failure that view Information systems as mainly a neutral technical artifact ( Klein and Hirscheim, 1987), this paper will attempt to explore the more multi-faceted nature of systems failure which is closer to the reality that system exist in. This analysis will be anchored in the concepts of holism and emergent properties as described by Francis and Roland Bee (2005), Managing Information and Statistics, 2005, whereby the approach taken to analysis emphasizes the system relationships and processes and results of its interactions. References will be made to existing frameworks used to investigate system failure in particular the Sauer model Sauer (1993). Details of the description of the system and the failure will be dra wn mainly from a paper on Information System failure and risk Assessment by Paul Beynon Davis (Computer studies technical report University of Glamorgan, 1994b).From this investigation existing methods of preventing or solving software systems failure will be explored in the context of the LASCAD system to look into recommendations and lessons learnt to prevent such failures .This will particularly focus on risk handling as proposed by B.W Boehm ( 1991) and the Goal Question Metrics by Solingen and E. Berghout (1999). Summary of the LASCAD System Failure Case Study The LASCAD system was a computer aided ambulance dispatch system established at the head quarters of the London Ambulance Service. According to Page et al (1993), the expected functions of the system are described below: Call taking: Acceptance of calls and incident details Resource Identification: Particularly which ambulance to send to an incident Resource Mobilization: Communicating details of an incident to the appropriate ambulance Resource Management: The positioning of suitably equipped and staffed vehicles to minimize response times Management Information: This involves the collation information to assess performance, resource management and planning. This system was supposed to solve the problems related to manual dispatch systems including time consuming and error prone identification of the precise incident location, paperwork and maintenance of current vehicle status information. The LASCAD system objective was to automate these manual human intensive tasks by using an events based and ruled based approach and integrating a Geographical Information System (GIS) to provide location details. In this system the callers, incident and patient details would be recorded and transmitted to the dispatchers. Through the use of radio signals and GIS the system is able to determine the ambulance nearest to the patient. After dispatch the ambulance crew was expected to acknowledge the dispatch message and the system would then detect whether the ambulance was headed in the right direction. Finally the system would alert the controller on the ambulances arrival to the scene, hospital and when it becomes free again. Figure1: LASCAD flow chart (Paul Beynon Davis, 1994) This explanation of expectations of the systems functionality is pretty linear and even simplistic but on closer examination one is able to construe the complexities that are involved in delivering such expectations. This will become more apparent in the following section highlighting the system failure and later on the events leading to the failure. Between 26th and 27th October 1992 (Paul Beynon Davis, 1994), the system started to fail. It was reported that as a result of a flood of emergency calls bogged down the system and this resulted in erratic behavior of the system involving calls being wiped off the screen and automatic alerts indicating unacknowledged calls to ambulances. According to the Guardian newspaper, 1992, it was claimed that 20-30 people may have lost their lives due to ambulance delays. Indeed the impact of this failure was tremendous and as expected triggered various responses as to what was the cause of the failure. According to Donaldson and Jenkins (2000) in their paper on System Failures: An Approach to understanding what can go wrong, the causes of system failure are complex and interact with each other and in some cases a single factor may single out the problem while in others a combination of many small and apparently insignificant factors are to blame. This merely says that it is difficult to analyze causes of systems failure which would only be closely understood through multi cause analysis stemming from the soft systems methodology. It also becomes apparent that everything is not always as it seems, a good example is the Arriane V rocket (ESA Press release Nr 33-96-July 1996) which failed courtesy of its navigation software bein g inappropriate for the rockets design. This was not actually a software failure as may have been though in the outset but a problem with the overall incorrect assembly of the rocket. As it were the software performed to its specification. This is akin to expectation failure which Lyytinen and Hirscheim (1987) describe as the inability of an IS system to meet specific stakeholder groups expectations, they signify a gap between an existing situation and a desired situation for members of a particular stakeholder group. This is further enhanced by Donaldson and Jenkins (2000) system failure analysis detailing high public expectancy of computer technology, Fashion/popularity of systems obscuring its basic objectives and the varying stakeholder interests creating different perceptions of the system. Analysis of the LASCAD System failure Following the above outline of the system failure and prelude of expected challenges in analyzing system failure this section will attempt to shed detailed insight into the failure. The analysis will follow Sauerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s model (Sauer, 1993), of investigating system failure which is based on a triangle of dependencies between: Project organization Information system Supporters The multi-faceted nature of systems failure alluded to in the introduction would mean that even this triangle is not a closed system but is affected by other contextual factors of which according to Sauer consists of cognitive limits-(e.g. limits of communication), technical process-( constraints from structured nature of computerized systems or development methodology), environment-(constraints by customers, suppliers, competitors, regulators), Politics, internal project structure and history associated with previous information system projects. Project organization In light of the LASCAD project failure the project organization from inception is very wanting. Firstly following a public inquiry report on the failure (Page et al, 1993), it is claimed that the London Ambulance Service (LAS) management put price before quality and committed to an over ambitious project timetable. This was evidenced by the selection of a supplier who has no experience in building ambulance dispatch systems but had significantly underbid a more established supplier. This was made worse by the management putting the supplier under immense pressure to deliver the system quickly. Secondly the project management team did not follow the PRINCE (Projects in Controlled Environments) project management method prescribed for public sector projects. Thirdly it was found that the system was incomplete and unstable and particularly the emergency backup system was untested. This was further compounded by inconsistent and incomplete user training. Information system In terms of the information system dimension the report of the public inquiry (Page et al, 1993) suggests that the failure was not a result of technical issues since on overall the system did what it was designed to do. It goes further to explain that at the onset the loads on the system were light and the control staff could easily cope with various problems associated with ambulance crews pressing wrong buttons, radio black spots, communication hand-shaking problems etc. When these incidents increased incorrect vehicle location and status information received by the controllers also increased resulting in the failure to cope with the load leading to fewer resources to allocate to incidents and subsequent delays in response times. Supporters/stakeholders As defined by Paul Beynon Davis (1995), supporters/stakeholders defined as people sharing a pool of values that define what the desirable features of an information system and how they should be obtained. The stakeholders have different views and expectations of the system of which such a mismatch in perceptions in this case contributed to the failure. This is depicted below: Figure 2: LASCAD system perceptions rich picture LAS Management: The London Ambulance Service (LAS) management viewed the system as a way to improve service to patients by putting in place mechanisms that would ensure objective and impartial resource mobilization through automation. The LAS management was also influenced by a past experience involving a failed computerized dispatch system project and pressure from organization-wide restructuring that put them under immense pressure to succeed Control room staff: The staff in the control room found the system to be too complicated and did not trust the motives behind implementing a computerized system Ambulance staff: The ambulance crews were more comfortable with the radio call systems that they had been used to and did not have confidence in the new system as they did not see the need for it and found it too complicated Union: The staff union found that there were no requisite consultations done before making the decision to acquire the system and as such the already strained relationship between management and staff was worsened. Hardware and software suppliers: The system suppliers were not sure how to implement the system in the first place and this was compounded by tight deadlines from what they thought to be a disorganized client. Related to these perspectives are contextual factors concerning political environment courtesy of the overarching influence of the National Health Service (NHS) on the London Ambulance Service which is the LAS oversight body (Beynon-Davis 1994).The NHS is characterized by the lack of a unitary power structure and is made up of a network of different health organizations. The implication on a new information system is a very careful political balance in the impact the impact the system will have on the relationships in this network (Checkland and Scholes, 1990). As posit by page et al, (1993), the LASCAD project was greatly affected by internal tensions in within the NHS which had commissioned major reforms in the London Ambulance Service including restructuring that resulted in the reduction of middle management from 263 to 53. It is clear that this resulted in strained relationships and an environment of mistrust and obtrusiveness when it came to any changes, which affected the LASCAD project. So far what is clear is the multifaceted nature of the failure that results from various causes of the failure that is common in computerized information systems, which Paul Beynon-Davis describe as web-like in nature. It has been reported that 92% of all system failures involved failures of technical interaction with cognitive /organizational factors (Mackenzie, 1994). This as it were it is essential to trace the true causes of the system failure. One way of doing this is through multi cause diagrams as mentioned in the section above or Petri nets which use state and event oriented graphs. The LASCAD project failure is depicted below using a multi cause diagram to explore the events and states on why the failure occurred: Figure 3: LASCAD system failure multi-cause diagram Ideas, Recommendations and Lessons Learned As expressed above using Sauerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s model (Sauer, 1993) of investigating system failure, the dependencies between the project organization, information system and its supporters have come out very clearly. Using the information system dimension the failure is not attributed to technical issues at all, which goes against common place failure attribution of computerized information systems. This begs the question, what constitutes a system failure? Lyytinen and Hirschein (1987) categorize system failure into four: Correspondence failure: There is a disjoint between the design objectives of the system and what is practically being met by the system. Process failure: This is characterized by runaway projects that either do not provide a workable system or overrun budgets and time. Interaction failure: This focuses on utilization of the system i.e. a highly utilized system is considered a success and one that is hardly used is a failure. Expectation failure: As stated earlier this is the inability of the system to meet a specific stakeholder groupà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s expectations. The LASCAD system falls into this category as it appears it did not meet various stakeholder group expectations. Donaldson and Jenkins (2000) talk about a 3 dimensional picture where a system totally fails, partially fails or temporarily goes down. In the case of LASCAD it is taken as a partial failure resulting from a number of flaws that are rectifiable and as such this is not a total failure. The rectification will mainly involve a reassessment of the entire project taking mainly focusing on the role of risk assessment. Risk is the probability of a negative outcome. Negative outcome is in essence a relative concept as Wilcocks and Margetts (1994) suggest the risk of a negative outcome only becomes a salient problem when the outcome is relevant to stakeholder concerns and interests. Different settings and stakeholders will see different outcomes as salient. The proposed framework to use in risk assessment follows Wilcocks and Margetts (1994) who put across the following categories to be used in analyzing the development, introduction and use of information systems, these are: History: Past experiences with information system development. Outer context: The environment in which the organization is operating e.g. economy, markets, government Inner context: The characteristics of the organization e.g. structure, strategy Content: For example project size and difficulty Processes: For example project management and staffing Outcomes: Planned and anticipated results. The proposed risk assessment framework would be implemented through out the development, introduction and use of information systems. This will be used to complement an overarching software management methodology such as the Goal Question Metrics (GQM) mentioned in the introduction and the Capability Maturity Model which outline good practices in project management to ensure project success. In the context of LASCAD the GQM will particularly address the aforementioned failure characteristics in the analysis section through the following stages in development: Setting specific goals in light of purpose perspective and environment Refine goals into quantifiable easy to understand questions Derive requisite metrics and data to answer the questions There are various methods that can be used in preventing or solving computerized system failure the Capability maturity model and Goal Question Metrics mentioned above are by no means exhaustive nor are they prescriptive. Organizations are different contextually and individual projects also vary in size and complexity and as such would require approaches the methodologies to be customized and scaled for specific organizations and projects. The Capability Maturity model is a prime example that targets improvement in software processes toward a specific target- maturity level that the organization is working toward. On the other hand there is need to put emphasis on risk management outside of the one dimensional technical orientation to encompass the complexities of computerized systems as seen through the lens of Wilcocks and Margetts (1994) risk management framework. Conclusion: The LASCAD system is a good example that portrays the reality of the complex and multi-faceted nature of systems failure. The different perspectives of the system and congruent expectations make even the very definition of the failure unclear. This particular case highlighted the political and social causes of the failure, what has been described as contextual factors. References to various frameworks have been made in the analysis of the failure -Lyytinen and Hirscheim (1987), particularly expectation failure and dependencies in the 3 dimensional Sauerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s model (Sauer, 1993). The failure analysis provided the distillation of the system failure characteristics which describe the true causes of the failure. This was done using rich pictures to accommodate varying perceptions and expectations and multi cause diagrams to explore the various causes of the failure. Lessons learnt and future remediation of systems failure is centered on risk management and project methodologies ensuring good practice in the development, introduction and use of information systems. As recommended in this paper these should take into consideration contextual/ organizational issues apart from technical aspects of the system.

Consumer Motivations for Online Shopping

Consumer Motivations for Online Shopping CHAPTER 1 1 INTRODUCTION At the end of the last century, online shopping was already starting to catch peoples attention, and was slowly attracting consumers to use it as a channel, primarily because of its ease in completing purchases (i.e. not needing to step out of the home) and also in providing information as, even then, some sites already provided extensive information (Gay 1999, Gehrt et al 2007). But we are well into the first decade of the 21st century, and since then times have changed and certainly, consumers motivations, as evidenced in this literature review and the results of the research project, have changed. The use of the online channel for shopping varies greatly by country with the UK and the US ranking high up in the list with greatest ratio of online shoppers among Internet users, in addition to also having a large penetration of users for Internet access (Bhatti 2006). In the UK, Internet access among households has increased from 34% in 2000 to 54% in 2004, while Internet access for adults increased from 40% in 2000 to 64% in 2005 (Datamonitor 2006). 1.1 Research aims and objectives The project had two key questions to focus on and this acted as a guide to the research design and methodology. The two key research questions in my project were: What are the key consumer motivations for online shopping and how are these impacting the development of the online channel? This question focused on the key drivers acting as impetus for consumers to pursue online shopping, and how these drivers were impacting the online channel as an alternative channel for making purchases. What are the emerging trends for online shopping, and how will the online shopping channel develop? As online shopping continues to increase, both organisations and consumers are expected to be better-placed with having a good understanding of where online shopping trends seem to be directed at. 1.2 Consumer motivations The project sought to understand the consumer motivations for choosing online shopping as an alternative channel or, for some consumers, their main channel for shopping particular items. This part of the project was based on determining what consumers have stated as their key motivation factors through secondary research. This was supported by primary research by surveying and interviewing consumers on their motivational factors. The objective was to list out the key motivational factors consumers have for online shopping. 1.3 Emerging trends for online shopping In addition to understanding consumer motivation, this project also sought, as an objective, to understand the emerging trends in online shopping, and establish a viewpoint on where the online channel was expected to move to. Similar for consumer motivations, this part of the project was based on a combination of primary and secondary research. 1.4 Rationale for research project There was a strong rationale for pursuing this project as it aimed to provide a greater understanding of the consumer and the motivations behind online shopping. As the importance of the online channel becomes increasingly greater for organisations, there is greater need for determining the consumers key drivers in choosing this as an alternative channel for shopping. The project results impact both consumers and organisations. For consumers, this gave them a venue for stating their preferences and key requirements to continue using the online channel which could lead to improvements on the online shopping experience. For organisations, this project provided an understanding of the current situation and also the emerging trends based on competitive dynamics, in order to be able to provide the consumers their requirements. This project was also important for me as the student as it gave me an opportunity to develop the knowledge and pursue the analysis of a critical management issue which was becoming a greater value add channel for a large number of organisations. The project, I believe, has led to new insights and a confirmation of consumers key motivations to online shopping. I believe this contributes to the growing knowledge on the online shopping experience of consumers 1.5 Overview of the study Chapter 1 is the introduction chapter where the background, research question and rational, objective and the structure of the research are stated. Chapter 2 contains a brief literature review on online shopping and provided basic understanding about consumer motivations and emerging trends for online shopping which is related to the research question. Chapter 3 is brief about the case study on online shopping. Chapter 4 contains research methodology which includes research frame work the design of the research, sampling and questionnaire. Chapter 5 describes the critical review of the findings. Chapter 6 discusses on recommendation and conclusions. CHAPTER 2 2. LITERATURE REVIEW The study attempts to analyze research works relating to consumer motivations for online shopping and related issues are critically evaluated. This research project was pursued with a ‘qualitative research approach as the focus was on consumer motivations, which, while it could have been developed with quantitative metrics, seemed to translate better into a qualitative focus. The objective was more focused on going in greater depth across the key consumer motivations instead of tallying figures in terms of which factors consumers felt were their key motivations. The qualitative aspect of the research project was pursued through surveys and in-depth questionnaires. 2.1 Consumer motivations Childers et al (2001) defines ‘‘consumer motivations for online retail shopping conducted a few years ago, some of the consumer motivations cited were interest in use of a new technology, ease of navigation and use, and convenience of online shopping. While the research mentioned looked at consumer motivations, the research was only a subset of what could be learned from consumer behaviour as the study focused on only a few possible factors of online shopping activity. Linked to the increase of online shopping is the increase in access and usage of the Internet. Rodgers and Sheldon (2002) researched ‘‘the increasing use of the Internet and highlighted shopping as one of the key motivations for increased consumer use. In this work, the authors looked at shopping as a consumer motivation for increased consumer use. (Ko et al 2005, Tamimi et al 2005, Dadzie et al 2005) discussed that ‘‘it should be noted that there has been considerable growth in Internet access and usage, and this has created a significant market in marketing and communications of organisations. Online shopping has been growing and organisations have been focusing more on developing the online channel to capture a greater share of the wallet of the consumer. Online shopping Hult et al (2007) defines that ‘‘online shopping can relate to any offering of service quality, product quality, or e-Business quality where the objective is the customer-based value creation for organisations. Based on this definition, we can see that the number of online shoppers has indeed increased significantly in the UK, with the percentage of UK Internet users shopping online (including ordering tickets of buying goods and services) grew from 36% in 2000 to 61% in 2005 (Datamonitor 2006). For this research project, the broad definition is reasonable as the key focus of the research is in understanding consumer motivations for online shopping in general, with no specific product or service in mind. Undoubtedly, there are a large number of ways in which to cut the issue and there would be differences in the consumer motivations for specific products in specific markets. The works cited in this section provided a good starting point in the consumer motivations to be considered. The research works also provided an indication of the increasing use of the Internet and online shopping as an activity. From the limitations cited in the research works, further research needs to be conducted on a general understanding of consumer motivations which are not limited to a few factors. The rest of this section discusses some motivating factors cited by consumers as driving their online shopping activity. 24-hour access Bramall et al (2004) reported that ‘‘motivation by consumers is the 24-hour access provided or allowed by most online shopping channels. Thus, the online channel is utilised by consumers as it provides them with 24-hour access for information, customer service, and purchase opportunity. This essentially gives the consumer the opportunity to browse products and purchase at the consumers own leisure. While the research of the authors states this factor as a motivation, the focus of the research work was actually on potential trust issues in online shopping. This specific motivating factor was not analysed in comparison to other motivating factors for consumers. + Shopping convenience One oft-mentioned reason and an early consumer motivating factor, for shopping online is the convenience of doing so as consumers wont need to go to the retail stores and experience the ‘hassle of buying products in the stores (NBC News 2007). According to one study Furnham (2007) ‘‘not only highlight the convenience of shopping online but also states that shopping only also helps decision-making as a large part of the information requirements a consumer may need to make the decision are found online. Clearly, shopping convenience is expected to rank high among the consumers in terms of their motivations for pursuing online shopping. Gehrt et al (2007) reported that ‘‘Shopping convenience is a large factor for the US and UK consumers but this is not limited to the US or the UK markets only as even in Japan, online shopping has seen increasing growth rates, with shopping convenience as the greatest factor motivating consumers to do online shopping. The shopping convenience factor has been recognised across a number of research works, but these only tend to highlight that consumers have different meanings attached to the terminology, and may actually be referring to different sub-factors under the general term of convenience. In understanding this factor further, specific meanings were attached to and discussed in the surveys and interviews for the research. Greater bargains Craver (2006) reported that ‘‘not only consumers are expected to continue increasing their online purchases but only if they receive greater bargains from sellers in their online sites versus their retail stores. Thus, consumers are already building the expectations that prices online will be less that prices in retail stores. Hajewski (2006) pointed out that ‘‘If only to hammer the point of increasing consumer expectations, two factors mentioned by consumers in their increased interest in doing online shopping were free shipping of their products purchased and also everyday low pricing particularly relative to the retail stores of the sellers. The key limitation in the citations for ‘greater bargains is that these are from press articles and the approaches were not based on proper research conducted to determine the consumer motivations for online shopping. Nevertheless, this should still be accepted as a consumer motivation as this has been mentioned to be a factor based on the articles cited. Overall online shopping site experience Elliott Speck (2005) discussed that ‘‘touches on the overall online shopping site experience which in a way, relates to the overall customer experience in online shopping. This factor is quite specific to online shopping sites which consumers may visit but this nevertheless provides a motivation for some specific consumers and it relates to the overall online shopping site experience and having a positive satisfaction to the experience. Specifically, the authors argued that the following factors impacted on the consumer motivation to complete their online shopping transactions: ease of use of online shopping site, product information available, trust in the brand and the online shopping site, customer support, and entertainment experienced while in the site. The focus of the research conducted by the authors was not on online shopping specifically but rather on the attitude towards retail web sites but using the online shopping experience as an example, with an analysis of the resulting impact on the consumers. Similar to some of the other published research cited in this section, the key limitation is the set of respondents considered for the research which, in this case, consisted of undergraduate marketing students. The results are interesting and provide a good preview of what the results could be if the research is expanded to capture a greater sample of the population. 2.2 Emerging trends for online shopping In reviewing the related literature touching on online shopping and also consumer motivations, a number of emerging trends were clearly seen. These include the following: * Increased efforts in improving online security * Potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses * Usability of an online site as an increasing differentiator * Management of Internet product returns * Increasingly demanding consumers * Increasing opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationships * Increasingly older market * Greater share of ad market Each of these trends is discussed in greater detail in this section. Increased efforts in improving online security (Bramall et al 2004, Arnold et al 2007, OConnell 2005, Cullen 2005) explained that ‘‘online shopping has shown strong growth and yet the belief is that online shopping growth rates could actually be much higher if not for security-related concerns by some consumers. Biswas et al (2006) described ‘‘there are two trends to be noted in relation to the security concerns of consumers. The first, as mentioned, is that there are greater efforts placed by organisations in improving online security as breaches to their security could have considerable consequences. The second trend is that a complementary approach to improving reputation for managing online security risks is paramount. In support of this, where there are great concerns for risk, it has been established that utilising expert endorsers, as opposed to celebrity endorsers or even non-celebrity non-expert endorsers, can actually help in bringing consumers over their risk concerns. Potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses Another trend is that organisations are increasingly seeing potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses. For example, in recent months, Kohls, a US department store chain, has offered products online which were not normally found in their department stores and these included higher-priced items such as leather chairs, high-end home entertainment centres, and flat screen televisions (Hajewski 2007). This trend is not without its implications for organisation. In the Kohls example, one problem with the expanded product range as done by Kohls was that Kohls did not offer everything they had online in their retail stores. This is a concern as some consumers utilise the online site for their ‘window shopping before moving to the retail stores to try on and purchase the items (Dodes 2006). The article states that more than 80% of online shoppers research products online first before sometimes going to the stores to see the products firsthand. Given that not all products are available in the stores, it would be prudent for online sites to be clear about which products are available in the stores and which products are not. In terms of ancillary businesses, the increase in online usage and online shopping has even spawned related business such as businesses which monitor traffic into organisations websites with the objective of increasing an organisations online sales (Newman 2007). Another ancillary business opportunity is from online shopping sites is as a social shopping space, such as Jellyfish.com which was recently acquired by Microsoft as it saw the growing opportunity in the business (Gallagher 2007). However, these new business are still untested as these are fairly new and would need some time before potentially growing into profitable businesses. As online shopping continues to grow, organisations will continue to seek out other opportunities that could help build the rationale for investments in establishing a highly competitive online shopping site. Usability of online site is an increasing differentiator Massey et al (2007) reported that ‘‘while the extent of technological readiness of the consumer plays a part in determining the level of comfort in navigating through an online shopping site, the general usability of an online shopping site is an increasing differentiator and distinguishes between the different sites that consumers will utilize in online shopping. The goal with these sites is to have it easily navigated through by consumers such that any potential barriers to keep consumers from purchasing products and services are effectively taken out of the equation. An example of an initiative moving into the direction of overall ease of usability is the recent transaction involving Abazias.com and Google wherein Abzias.com partnered with Google for their shopping checkout process which is considered fast and very convenient (M2 Presswire 2007). The challenge for organisations is to continue making their online shopping sites easier to use. And to support the point, some online shopping sites now provide potential live help from customer service if particular requirements are needed in order to limit the number of lost purchases resulting from consumers abandoning their purchases (Prince 2005). Overall, the design of the website and the ease of use have a large impact on the online shopping sites performance (Auger 2005). Management of Internet product returns Mollenkopf et al (2007) explained that emerging trend is the establishment of clear guidelines in the management of Internet product returns, which then addresses a key concern or questions by some consumers. Internet product returns has been one of the key factors limiting part of the online shopping growth as the uncertainty surrounding how returns of defective or unwanted products impacted on the overall cost and inconvenience for the consumer. Organisations which are able to state clearly their policies on Internet product returns, and which provide a seamless process for allowing consumers to make returns for products bought online are at an advantage versus other organisations which have a perception of ‘being difficult to coordinate with in processing Internet product returns. Increasingly demanding consumers As the development of the online shopping channel continues, we are now seeing increasingly demanding consumers. This is shown in the UK supermarket sector. In this sector, online shopping is still considered a poor offering by the UK supermarkets as none of the top five supermarket chains passed a service test conducted by a consumer affairs staff of a newspaper (Prunn 2006). Their failures were from their product offering to the product substitutes provided. The key good news for the UK supermarkets though was that the websites were generally easy to use for online shopping. Also, the delivery drivers were helpful and friendly. In contrast, in the US, online shopping offering for the supermarkets is a competitive offering with various supermarkets increasingly providing greater online shopping offerings for their consumers including chef-prepared, fresh-food delivery service (Food Institute Report 2006). Thus, the US supermarkets are able to provide the US consumers with their ‘demands from US supermarkets. UK supermarkets will need to focus on improving their offering in order to capture the consumer wallet for shopping deliveries. Increasing opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationships (Kennedy 2006) pointed out that the online shopping channel provides organisations with an additional channel to develop consumer relationships. Organisations which are able to effectively capture value from their online shopping offering are the organisations which are able to â€Å"collect and analyze data on consumer patterns, interpret customer behaviour, respond with timely and effective customised communications, and deliver product and service value to consumers†. The game is not new to most organisations. The only difference is that there is a new channel to consider for the consumer relationships. In order to be competitive, organisations should be able to learn from their interactions with the consumers, and develop the channel into one that consumers will find value from. With the growth of the online shopping channel, more organisations will invest in ensuring that consumer information is managed properly to be leveraged by the organisation in capturing value from the interactions. Increasingly older market Iyer Eastman (2006) has noted that the â€Å"older internet users market comprises the fastest-growing demographic group in the Internet market† and are, aside from large and growing, generally financially secure. This potential trend has large implications on various organisations that can benefit from this research work. Thus, a greater understanding of the key trends is important in order to allow the organisations to plan and invest properly in their online shopping channels. Greater share of ad market Finally, another trend worth noting is the increasing share of the ad market by the online channel. With the growth of the online shopping consumer market, the ad share of this channel is expected to grow as well from about 5-8% to up to one-fifth of total ad budgets over the next three years (Ong 2005). The greater share of the ad market by the online channel has implications for organisations across two key points. First is that there needs to be a decision on the amount of the ad budget that will be allotted to the online channel. After deciding on the first point, the second key point is that it is imperative for organisations to understand the business model of the online channel, and that the organisations have a plan in ensuring their investments will eventually generate good returns. CHAPTER 3 3. CASE STUDY 3.1 History of online shopping Shopping online is the process for the customer to buy products or services via the Internet. In other words, consumers can buy it from the comfort of a holiday home of their own products from a store online. The concepts of this show before the first World Wide Web that are used with real-time transactions are processed from the domestic television! The technology used is called Videotext and shows the first time in 1979 by M. Aldrick, designed and installed the system in the UK. T. 1990 by Berners-Lee created the first WWW server and browser, and in 1995 by expanding the Amazon online shopping experience. History of Online Shopping is amazing. Gone are the days of waiting in traffic and work our way through the store is too full. All we need is a computer, bank account, credit or debit card and freedom voila! From books, to cosmetics, clothes and accessories to name a few, online shopping is the best in the century to 21 Simply find a site that offers things you want, price and delivery terms and in a matter of a few days of your purchase is at your door. Benefits and the ease of clear predictable as we offer a wider selection, competitive prices and greater access to information in regards to our purchase. Online stores are usually available 24 hours a day, and allow consumers to shop in their spare time and without travelling outside normal working hours. Another to consider is the first time the Internet was not well prepared that they will change the way we shop. On the web is created as a tool for communication, which in time to let the ease of virtual shopping. History of online shopping by itself represents a change by the people and now has become a service used by the ordinary business and shopping in the world. (Online blog, http://roomen-online.blogspot.com/2009/08/history-of-online-shopping.html) 3.2 Growth of online shopping The ability to shop online has transformed the way many consumers go about purchasing a product or service, giving the power to the individual consumer to access information, allowing easy and convenient research and comparison of various factors prior to making a purchase. The growth rate of online commerce is unparalleled in any other industry, growing twenty times faster than the overall UK retail market in 2005. Furthermore, the number of online shoppers grew by 25.5% to 14.6 million; with the number over the age of 55 doubling to 2.7 million. Forrester Research predict that UK shoppers will drive UK e-commerce from â‚ ¬43bn in 2006 to â‚ ¬76bn in 2011, accounting for 29% of total European internet retail. As such, we see the market study as a good opportunity to ‘take stock of online shopping in the UK, looking at what it has done for UK plc as a whole since its growth through the internet boom of the late nineties to the stable yet competitive market we see today. I t is worth noting many of the businesses that lived through the dot-com crash were internet retail sites, a clear indication of the valuable role they play for consumers. ( OFT Market Study on Online Shopping, http://207.45.116.138/ndbs/positiondoc.nsf/1f08ec61711f29768025672a0055f7a8/6174E87FE56AFC3F8025735300568DBA/$file/oftonlineshopping250706.pdf ) 3.3 Current trend As far as online shopping in UK is concerned, there is clear trend that those who resort to this new system of shopping will increase by 30 to 40 per cent in a period of 4 years. Remember, there was a delay of 2 to 6 years for people to shift to online shopping after getting acquainted to the internet. But the online system is gaining momentum in an unprecedented market reaction. In the early years only younger generation was using the online shopping services, but then came a remarkable change in the pattern of users. More and more people from older generation are getting attracted to the online shopping system. According to reliable projections, by 2050 the retail marketing scene will undergo a thorough change in its form and magnitude, and the shopping in UK will evolve beyond recognition with high street dominating the field. Everyone will be online, every hour every day! It will become an automatic process and convert the high street to something like a gallery style showroom! If the prediction becomes a reality, the Britons will be spending nearly 63 billion pounds for the online shopping. 860 million parcels will be shipped to the United Kingdom to serve 26 million internet shoppers. Each shopper will spend  £ 2400 each on an average. The number of people using online shopping will exceed the predictions and projections, if the present trend is an indication to that. At present, 10 per cent of the total retail selling is through internet. It will go up to 20 percent in 3 years. There will be a remarkable change in the composition of customers, patronizing online shopping. Men and women of all ages and professions will adopt the new system for the advantages inherent in the online shopping. The older generation, will increasingly use the online shopping, to avoid the ordeals of travelling, searching and bargaining involved in the conventional shopping. It is easier, faster, safer and valuable, according to those who have changed over to the system. No doubt the online shopping will gain popularity and momentum in the coming years. Globalization of trade has given a new impetus to this new market initiative. The political borders are disappearing as far as trade and commerce are concerned. The online trading and international postal services are giving new thrust to economy. Cross border shopping is flourishing. The internet has helped to widen the area of information much to the benefits of the customers. More accurate information is available now, about the companies, their products and services. The consumers are able to browse online catalogues and acquire vital information about a variety of goods displayed by several companies in their websites. Regarding prices there is a distinctively clear advantage for the consumer. The absence of middle men in the online shopping system will permit the dealers to trim their profit margins in favour of the customer. There are many price comparison service providers who serve the consumer by providing product information and price advantages. Retailers also publish their price ranges in such websites. The shopping web portals are more than the online version of yellow pages. The price comparison services search and retrieve data directly from retailers and feed them to the consumers through the internet. A comprehensive list of retailers and detailed list of prices are available with regular updating. (Future of ONLINE SHOPPING in UK, http://www.edealsuk.com/articles/online-shopping-trend-uk.html) CHAPTER 4 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY . This research project was conducted with an explanatory research approach as the focus was in discovering ideas and insights into consumer motivations and emerging trends on online shopping (Mariampolski 2001). The research methodology also followed the framework of analysis defined in the previous section which resulted from the literature review. As the research work was largely qualitative, the exploratory approach and the analysis and results from the primary research provides a good understanding of the consumer motivations for online shopping, and also provides a framework for further analysis if needed by other researchers focusing on greater depth in some areas or expansion of issues not covered in this research project. The focus of the research project is on consumer motivations on online shopping and will not touch on specific online sites unless these are discussed in the context of increasing online shopping activities and consumer motivations. 4.1 Primary research The key primary research activities for this project included surveys and in-depth interviews to understand the key consumer motivations for online shopping. 4.1.1 Surveys The surveys gave a preview of the various factors which were impacting on online shopping. An open-ended survey was conducted to give consumers the opportunity to give factors which they truly feel were their key motivating considerations. The survey was divided into two main sections: * Open-ended and unprompted This section was designed to allow the respondents to give answers freely without any prompts. This was to ensure that the consumers thoughts were captured properly, and that their ideas and key motivations were the ones that were included in their responses. * Prompted with specific factors After the unprompted section, the survey had a section which had some of the preliminary findings from the literature review. This was designed to test the literature review findings, and also provide the respondents an opportunity to highlight some factors which may be important but were not mentioned by the respondent during the first part of the survey. 4.1.2 In-depth Interviews The in-depth interviews were Consumer Motivations for Online Shopping Consumer Motivations for Online Shopping CHAPTER 1 1 INTRODUCTION At the end of the last century, online shopping was already starting to catch peoples attention, and was slowly attracting consumers to use it as a channel, primarily because of its ease in completing purchases (i.e. not needing to step out of the home) and also in providing information as, even then, some sites already provided extensive information (Gay 1999, Gehrt et al 2007). But we are well into the first decade of the 21st century, and since then times have changed and certainly, consumers motivations, as evidenced in this literature review and the results of the research project, have changed. The use of the online channel for shopping varies greatly by country with the UK and the US ranking high up in the list with greatest ratio of online shoppers among Internet users, in addition to also having a large penetration of users for Internet access (Bhatti 2006). In the UK, Internet access among households has increased from 34% in 2000 to 54% in 2004, while Internet access for adults increased from 40% in 2000 to 64% in 2005 (Datamonitor 2006). 1.1 Research aims and objectives The project had two key questions to focus on and this acted as a guide to the research design and methodology. The two key research questions in my project were: What are the key consumer motivations for online shopping and how are these impacting the development of the online channel? This question focused on the key drivers acting as impetus for consumers to pursue online shopping, and how these drivers were impacting the online channel as an alternative channel for making purchases. What are the emerging trends for online shopping, and how will the online shopping channel develop? As online shopping continues to increase, both organisations and consumers are expected to be better-placed with having a good understanding of where online shopping trends seem to be directed at. 1.2 Consumer motivations The project sought to understand the consumer motivations for choosing online shopping as an alternative channel or, for some consumers, their main channel for shopping particular items. This part of the project was based on determining what consumers have stated as their key motivation factors through secondary research. This was supported by primary research by surveying and interviewing consumers on their motivational factors. The objective was to list out the key motivational factors consumers have for online shopping. 1.3 Emerging trends for online shopping In addition to understanding consumer motivation, this project also sought, as an objective, to understand the emerging trends in online shopping, and establish a viewpoint on where the online channel was expected to move to. Similar for consumer motivations, this part of the project was based on a combination of primary and secondary research. 1.4 Rationale for research project There was a strong rationale for pursuing this project as it aimed to provide a greater understanding of the consumer and the motivations behind online shopping. As the importance of the online channel becomes increasingly greater for organisations, there is greater need for determining the consumers key drivers in choosing this as an alternative channel for shopping. The project results impact both consumers and organisations. For consumers, this gave them a venue for stating their preferences and key requirements to continue using the online channel which could lead to improvements on the online shopping experience. For organisations, this project provided an understanding of the current situation and also the emerging trends based on competitive dynamics, in order to be able to provide the consumers their requirements. This project was also important for me as the student as it gave me an opportunity to develop the knowledge and pursue the analysis of a critical management issue which was becoming a greater value add channel for a large number of organisations. The project, I believe, has led to new insights and a confirmation of consumers key motivations to online shopping. I believe this contributes to the growing knowledge on the online shopping experience of consumers 1.5 Overview of the study Chapter 1 is the introduction chapter where the background, research question and rational, objective and the structure of the research are stated. Chapter 2 contains a brief literature review on online shopping and provided basic understanding about consumer motivations and emerging trends for online shopping which is related to the research question. Chapter 3 is brief about the case study on online shopping. Chapter 4 contains research methodology which includes research frame work the design of the research, sampling and questionnaire. Chapter 5 describes the critical review of the findings. Chapter 6 discusses on recommendation and conclusions. CHAPTER 2 2. LITERATURE REVIEW The study attempts to analyze research works relating to consumer motivations for online shopping and related issues are critically evaluated. This research project was pursued with a ‘qualitative research approach as the focus was on consumer motivations, which, while it could have been developed with quantitative metrics, seemed to translate better into a qualitative focus. The objective was more focused on going in greater depth across the key consumer motivations instead of tallying figures in terms of which factors consumers felt were their key motivations. The qualitative aspect of the research project was pursued through surveys and in-depth questionnaires. 2.1 Consumer motivations Childers et al (2001) defines ‘‘consumer motivations for online retail shopping conducted a few years ago, some of the consumer motivations cited were interest in use of a new technology, ease of navigation and use, and convenience of online shopping. While the research mentioned looked at consumer motivations, the research was only a subset of what could be learned from consumer behaviour as the study focused on only a few possible factors of online shopping activity. Linked to the increase of online shopping is the increase in access and usage of the Internet. Rodgers and Sheldon (2002) researched ‘‘the increasing use of the Internet and highlighted shopping as one of the key motivations for increased consumer use. In this work, the authors looked at shopping as a consumer motivation for increased consumer use. (Ko et al 2005, Tamimi et al 2005, Dadzie et al 2005) discussed that ‘‘it should be noted that there has been considerable growth in Internet access and usage, and this has created a significant market in marketing and communications of organisations. Online shopping has been growing and organisations have been focusing more on developing the online channel to capture a greater share of the wallet of the consumer. Online shopping Hult et al (2007) defines that ‘‘online shopping can relate to any offering of service quality, product quality, or e-Business quality where the objective is the customer-based value creation for organisations. Based on this definition, we can see that the number of online shoppers has indeed increased significantly in the UK, with the percentage of UK Internet users shopping online (including ordering tickets of buying goods and services) grew from 36% in 2000 to 61% in 2005 (Datamonitor 2006). For this research project, the broad definition is reasonable as the key focus of the research is in understanding consumer motivations for online shopping in general, with no specific product or service in mind. Undoubtedly, there are a large number of ways in which to cut the issue and there would be differences in the consumer motivations for specific products in specific markets. The works cited in this section provided a good starting point in the consumer motivations to be considered. The research works also provided an indication of the increasing use of the Internet and online shopping as an activity. From the limitations cited in the research works, further research needs to be conducted on a general understanding of consumer motivations which are not limited to a few factors. The rest of this section discusses some motivating factors cited by consumers as driving their online shopping activity. 24-hour access Bramall et al (2004) reported that ‘‘motivation by consumers is the 24-hour access provided or allowed by most online shopping channels. Thus, the online channel is utilised by consumers as it provides them with 24-hour access for information, customer service, and purchase opportunity. This essentially gives the consumer the opportunity to browse products and purchase at the consumers own leisure. While the research of the authors states this factor as a motivation, the focus of the research work was actually on potential trust issues in online shopping. This specific motivating factor was not analysed in comparison to other motivating factors for consumers. + Shopping convenience One oft-mentioned reason and an early consumer motivating factor, for shopping online is the convenience of doing so as consumers wont need to go to the retail stores and experience the ‘hassle of buying products in the stores (NBC News 2007). According to one study Furnham (2007) ‘‘not only highlight the convenience of shopping online but also states that shopping only also helps decision-making as a large part of the information requirements a consumer may need to make the decision are found online. Clearly, shopping convenience is expected to rank high among the consumers in terms of their motivations for pursuing online shopping. Gehrt et al (2007) reported that ‘‘Shopping convenience is a large factor for the US and UK consumers but this is not limited to the US or the UK markets only as even in Japan, online shopping has seen increasing growth rates, with shopping convenience as the greatest factor motivating consumers to do online shopping. The shopping convenience factor has been recognised across a number of research works, but these only tend to highlight that consumers have different meanings attached to the terminology, and may actually be referring to different sub-factors under the general term of convenience. In understanding this factor further, specific meanings were attached to and discussed in the surveys and interviews for the research. Greater bargains Craver (2006) reported that ‘‘not only consumers are expected to continue increasing their online purchases but only if they receive greater bargains from sellers in their online sites versus their retail stores. Thus, consumers are already building the expectations that prices online will be less that prices in retail stores. Hajewski (2006) pointed out that ‘‘If only to hammer the point of increasing consumer expectations, two factors mentioned by consumers in their increased interest in doing online shopping were free shipping of their products purchased and also everyday low pricing particularly relative to the retail stores of the sellers. The key limitation in the citations for ‘greater bargains is that these are from press articles and the approaches were not based on proper research conducted to determine the consumer motivations for online shopping. Nevertheless, this should still be accepted as a consumer motivation as this has been mentioned to be a factor based on the articles cited. Overall online shopping site experience Elliott Speck (2005) discussed that ‘‘touches on the overall online shopping site experience which in a way, relates to the overall customer experience in online shopping. This factor is quite specific to online shopping sites which consumers may visit but this nevertheless provides a motivation for some specific consumers and it relates to the overall online shopping site experience and having a positive satisfaction to the experience. Specifically, the authors argued that the following factors impacted on the consumer motivation to complete their online shopping transactions: ease of use of online shopping site, product information available, trust in the brand and the online shopping site, customer support, and entertainment experienced while in the site. The focus of the research conducted by the authors was not on online shopping specifically but rather on the attitude towards retail web sites but using the online shopping experience as an example, with an analysis of the resulting impact on the consumers. Similar to some of the other published research cited in this section, the key limitation is the set of respondents considered for the research which, in this case, consisted of undergraduate marketing students. The results are interesting and provide a good preview of what the results could be if the research is expanded to capture a greater sample of the population. 2.2 Emerging trends for online shopping In reviewing the related literature touching on online shopping and also consumer motivations, a number of emerging trends were clearly seen. These include the following: * Increased efforts in improving online security * Potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses * Usability of an online site as an increasing differentiator * Management of Internet product returns * Increasingly demanding consumers * Increasing opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationships * Increasingly older market * Greater share of ad market Each of these trends is discussed in greater detail in this section. Increased efforts in improving online security (Bramall et al 2004, Arnold et al 2007, OConnell 2005, Cullen 2005) explained that ‘‘online shopping has shown strong growth and yet the belief is that online shopping growth rates could actually be much higher if not for security-related concerns by some consumers. Biswas et al (2006) described ‘‘there are two trends to be noted in relation to the security concerns of consumers. The first, as mentioned, is that there are greater efforts placed by organisations in improving online security as breaches to their security could have considerable consequences. The second trend is that a complementary approach to improving reputation for managing online security risks is paramount. In support of this, where there are great concerns for risk, it has been established that utilising expert endorsers, as opposed to celebrity endorsers or even non-celebrity non-expert endorsers, can actually help in bringing consumers over their risk concerns. Potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses Another trend is that organisations are increasingly seeing potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses. For example, in recent months, Kohls, a US department store chain, has offered products online which were not normally found in their department stores and these included higher-priced items such as leather chairs, high-end home entertainment centres, and flat screen televisions (Hajewski 2007). This trend is not without its implications for organisation. In the Kohls example, one problem with the expanded product range as done by Kohls was that Kohls did not offer everything they had online in their retail stores. This is a concern as some consumers utilise the online site for their ‘window shopping before moving to the retail stores to try on and purchase the items (Dodes 2006). The article states that more than 80% of online shoppers research products online first before sometimes going to the stores to see the products firsthand. Given that not all products are available in the stores, it would be prudent for online sites to be clear about which products are available in the stores and which products are not. In terms of ancillary businesses, the increase in online usage and online shopping has even spawned related business such as businesses which monitor traffic into organisations websites with the objective of increasing an organisations online sales (Newman 2007). Another ancillary business opportunity is from online shopping sites is as a social shopping space, such as Jellyfish.com which was recently acquired by Microsoft as it saw the growing opportunity in the business (Gallagher 2007). However, these new business are still untested as these are fairly new and would need some time before potentially growing into profitable businesses. As online shopping continues to grow, organisations will continue to seek out other opportunities that could help build the rationale for investments in establishing a highly competitive online shopping site. Usability of online site is an increasing differentiator Massey et al (2007) reported that ‘‘while the extent of technological readiness of the consumer plays a part in determining the level of comfort in navigating through an online shopping site, the general usability of an online shopping site is an increasing differentiator and distinguishes between the different sites that consumers will utilize in online shopping. The goal with these sites is to have it easily navigated through by consumers such that any potential barriers to keep consumers from purchasing products and services are effectively taken out of the equation. An example of an initiative moving into the direction of overall ease of usability is the recent transaction involving Abazias.com and Google wherein Abzias.com partnered with Google for their shopping checkout process which is considered fast and very convenient (M2 Presswire 2007). The challenge for organisations is to continue making their online shopping sites easier to use. And to support the point, some online shopping sites now provide potential live help from customer service if particular requirements are needed in order to limit the number of lost purchases resulting from consumers abandoning their purchases (Prince 2005). Overall, the design of the website and the ease of use have a large impact on the online shopping sites performance (Auger 2005). Management of Internet product returns Mollenkopf et al (2007) explained that emerging trend is the establishment of clear guidelines in the management of Internet product returns, which then addresses a key concern or questions by some consumers. Internet product returns has been one of the key factors limiting part of the online shopping growth as the uncertainty surrounding how returns of defective or unwanted products impacted on the overall cost and inconvenience for the consumer. Organisations which are able to state clearly their policies on Internet product returns, and which provide a seamless process for allowing consumers to make returns for products bought online are at an advantage versus other organisations which have a perception of ‘being difficult to coordinate with in processing Internet product returns. Increasingly demanding consumers As the development of the online shopping channel continues, we are now seeing increasingly demanding consumers. This is shown in the UK supermarket sector. In this sector, online shopping is still considered a poor offering by the UK supermarkets as none of the top five supermarket chains passed a service test conducted by a consumer affairs staff of a newspaper (Prunn 2006). Their failures were from their product offering to the product substitutes provided. The key good news for the UK supermarkets though was that the websites were generally easy to use for online shopping. Also, the delivery drivers were helpful and friendly. In contrast, in the US, online shopping offering for the supermarkets is a competitive offering with various supermarkets increasingly providing greater online shopping offerings for their consumers including chef-prepared, fresh-food delivery service (Food Institute Report 2006). Thus, the US supermarkets are able to provide the US consumers with their ‘demands from US supermarkets. UK supermarkets will need to focus on improving their offering in order to capture the consumer wallet for shopping deliveries. Increasing opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationships (Kennedy 2006) pointed out that the online shopping channel provides organisations with an additional channel to develop consumer relationships. Organisations which are able to effectively capture value from their online shopping offering are the organisations which are able to â€Å"collect and analyze data on consumer patterns, interpret customer behaviour, respond with timely and effective customised communications, and deliver product and service value to consumers†. The game is not new to most organisations. The only difference is that there is a new channel to consider for the consumer relationships. In order to be competitive, organisations should be able to learn from their interactions with the consumers, and develop the channel into one that consumers will find value from. With the growth of the online shopping channel, more organisations will invest in ensuring that consumer information is managed properly to be leveraged by the organisation in capturing value from the interactions. Increasingly older market Iyer Eastman (2006) has noted that the â€Å"older internet users market comprises the fastest-growing demographic group in the Internet market† and are, aside from large and growing, generally financially secure. This potential trend has large implications on various organisations that can benefit from this research work. Thus, a greater understanding of the key trends is important in order to allow the organisations to plan and invest properly in their online shopping channels. Greater share of ad market Finally, another trend worth noting is the increasing share of the ad market by the online channel. With the growth of the online shopping consumer market, the ad share of this channel is expected to grow as well from about 5-8% to up to one-fifth of total ad budgets over the next three years (Ong 2005). The greater share of the ad market by the online channel has implications for organisations across two key points. First is that there needs to be a decision on the amount of the ad budget that will be allotted to the online channel. After deciding on the first point, the second key point is that it is imperative for organisations to understand the business model of the online channel, and that the organisations have a plan in ensuring their investments will eventually generate good returns. CHAPTER 3 3. CASE STUDY 3.1 History of online shopping Shopping online is the process for the customer to buy products or services via the Internet. In other words, consumers can buy it from the comfort of a holiday home of their own products from a store online. The concepts of this show before the first World Wide Web that are used with real-time transactions are processed from the domestic television! The technology used is called Videotext and shows the first time in 1979 by M. Aldrick, designed and installed the system in the UK. T. 1990 by Berners-Lee created the first WWW server and browser, and in 1995 by expanding the Amazon online shopping experience. History of Online Shopping is amazing. Gone are the days of waiting in traffic and work our way through the store is too full. All we need is a computer, bank account, credit or debit card and freedom voila! From books, to cosmetics, clothes and accessories to name a few, online shopping is the best in the century to 21 Simply find a site that offers things you want, price and delivery terms and in a matter of a few days of your purchase is at your door. Benefits and the ease of clear predictable as we offer a wider selection, competitive prices and greater access to information in regards to our purchase. Online stores are usually available 24 hours a day, and allow consumers to shop in their spare time and without travelling outside normal working hours. Another to consider is the first time the Internet was not well prepared that they will change the way we shop. On the web is created as a tool for communication, which in time to let the ease of virtual shopping. History of online shopping by itself represents a change by the people and now has become a service used by the ordinary business and shopping in the world. (Online blog, http://roomen-online.blogspot.com/2009/08/history-of-online-shopping.html) 3.2 Growth of online shopping The ability to shop online has transformed the way many consumers go about purchasing a product or service, giving the power to the individual consumer to access information, allowing easy and convenient research and comparison of various factors prior to making a purchase. The growth rate of online commerce is unparalleled in any other industry, growing twenty times faster than the overall UK retail market in 2005. Furthermore, the number of online shoppers grew by 25.5% to 14.6 million; with the number over the age of 55 doubling to 2.7 million. Forrester Research predict that UK shoppers will drive UK e-commerce from â‚ ¬43bn in 2006 to â‚ ¬76bn in 2011, accounting for 29% of total European internet retail. As such, we see the market study as a good opportunity to ‘take stock of online shopping in the UK, looking at what it has done for UK plc as a whole since its growth through the internet boom of the late nineties to the stable yet competitive market we see today. I t is worth noting many of the businesses that lived through the dot-com crash were internet retail sites, a clear indication of the valuable role they play for consumers. ( OFT Market Study on Online Shopping, http://207.45.116.138/ndbs/positiondoc.nsf/1f08ec61711f29768025672a0055f7a8/6174E87FE56AFC3F8025735300568DBA/$file/oftonlineshopping250706.pdf ) 3.3 Current trend As far as online shopping in UK is concerned, there is clear trend that those who resort to this new system of shopping will increase by 30 to 40 per cent in a period of 4 years. Remember, there was a delay of 2 to 6 years for people to shift to online shopping after getting acquainted to the internet. But the online system is gaining momentum in an unprecedented market reaction. In the early years only younger generation was using the online shopping services, but then came a remarkable change in the pattern of users. More and more people from older generation are getting attracted to the online shopping system. According to reliable projections, by 2050 the retail marketing scene will undergo a thorough change in its form and magnitude, and the shopping in UK will evolve beyond recognition with high street dominating the field. Everyone will be online, every hour every day! It will become an automatic process and convert the high street to something like a gallery style showroom! If the prediction becomes a reality, the Britons will be spending nearly 63 billion pounds for the online shopping. 860 million parcels will be shipped to the United Kingdom to serve 26 million internet shoppers. Each shopper will spend  £ 2400 each on an average. The number of people using online shopping will exceed the predictions and projections, if the present trend is an indication to that. At present, 10 per cent of the total retail selling is through internet. It will go up to 20 percent in 3 years. There will be a remarkable change in the composition of customers, patronizing online shopping. Men and women of all ages and professions will adopt the new system for the advantages inherent in the online shopping. The older generation, will increasingly use the online shopping, to avoid the ordeals of travelling, searching and bargaining involved in the conventional shopping. It is easier, faster, safer and valuable, according to those who have changed over to the system. No doubt the online shopping will gain popularity and momentum in the coming years. Globalization of trade has given a new impetus to this new market initiative. The political borders are disappearing as far as trade and commerce are concerned. The online trading and international postal services are giving new thrust to economy. Cross border shopping is flourishing. The internet has helped to widen the area of information much to the benefits of the customers. More accurate information is available now, about the companies, their products and services. The consumers are able to browse online catalogues and acquire vital information about a variety of goods displayed by several companies in their websites. Regarding prices there is a distinctively clear advantage for the consumer. The absence of middle men in the online shopping system will permit the dealers to trim their profit margins in favour of the customer. There are many price comparison service providers who serve the consumer by providing product information and price advantages. Retailers also publish their price ranges in such websites. The shopping web portals are more than the online version of yellow pages. The price comparison services search and retrieve data directly from retailers and feed them to the consumers through the internet. A comprehensive list of retailers and detailed list of prices are available with regular updating. (Future of ONLINE SHOPPING in UK, http://www.edealsuk.com/articles/online-shopping-trend-uk.html) CHAPTER 4 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY . This research project was conducted with an explanatory research approach as the focus was in discovering ideas and insights into consumer motivations and emerging trends on online shopping (Mariampolski 2001). The research methodology also followed the framework of analysis defined in the previous section which resulted from the literature review. As the research work was largely qualitative, the exploratory approach and the analysis and results from the primary research provides a good understanding of the consumer motivations for online shopping, and also provides a framework for further analysis if needed by other researchers focusing on greater depth in some areas or expansion of issues not covered in this research project. The focus of the research project is on consumer motivations on online shopping and will not touch on specific online sites unless these are discussed in the context of increasing online shopping activities and consumer motivations. 4.1 Primary research The key primary research activities for this project included surveys and in-depth interviews to understand the key consumer motivations for online shopping. 4.1.1 Surveys The surveys gave a preview of the various factors which were impacting on online shopping. An open-ended survey was conducted to give consumers the opportunity to give factors which they truly feel were their key motivating considerations. The survey was divided into two main sections: * Open-ended and unprompted This section was designed to allow the respondents to give answers freely without any prompts. This was to ensure that the consumers thoughts were captured properly, and that their ideas and key motivations were the ones that were included in their responses. * Prompted with specific factors After the unprompted section, the survey had a section which had some of the preliminary findings from the literature review. This was designed to test the literature review findings, and also provide the respondents an opportunity to highlight some factors which may be important but were not mentioned by the respondent during the first part of the survey. 4.1.2 In-depth Interviews The in-depth interviews were