Hillary Clinton - Internet Policy Speech at Newseum free essay sample

Promoting School Support Throughout Your Community

Promoting School Support Throughout Your Community Every school would benefit from increased community support. Research has proven that schools with a greater support system thrive compared to those who do not have such support. School support comes from a variety of places both internally and externally. An effective school leader will leverage a variety of strategies to get the entire community to support the school. The following strategies are designed to promote your school and gain more community support from a variety of stakeholder groups. Write a Weekly Newspaper Column How: It will highlight the school’s successes, focus on individual teacher’s efforts, and give student recognition. It will also deal with challenges that the school is facing and needs that it has. Why: Writing the newspaper column will allow the public the opportunity to see what is going on within the school on a weekly basis. It will allow them the opportunity to see both the successes and obstacles that the school is facing. Have a Monthly Open House/Game Night How: Every third Thursday night of each month from 6-7 p.m., have an open house/game night. Each teacher will design games or activities geared towards the particular subject area they are teaching at the time. Parents and students and students will be invited to come in and participate in the activities together. Why: This will allow parents the opportunity to come into their children’s classroom, visit with their teachers, and participate in activities about subject areas that they are currently learning. It will allow them to be more actively involved in their children’s education and allow them to have more communication with their teachers.​ Thursday Lunch With the Parents How: Each Thursday a group of 10 parents will be invited to eat lunch with the principal. They will have lunch in a conference room and talk about issues that are current with the school. Why: This allows parents the opportunity to become comfortable with the principal and to express both concerns and positives about the school. It also allows the school to be more personalized and gives them the opportunity to provide input. Implement a Greeter Program How: Each nine weeks students will be selected to participate in the greeter program. There will be two students greeting per class period. Those students will greet all visitors at the door, walk them to the office, and assist them as needed. Why: This program will make visitors seem more welcomed. It will also allow the school to have a more friendly and personalized environment. Good first impressions are important. With friendly greeters at the door, most people will come away with a good first impression. Have Monthly Potluck Lunch How: Each month the teachers will get together and bring food for a potluck lunch. There will be doors prizes at each of these lunches. Teachers are free to socialize with other teachers and staff while enjoying good food. Why: This will allow the staff to sit down together once a month and relax while they eat. It will provide an opportunity for relationships and friendships to develop. It will provide time for the staff to pull together and have some fun. Recognize Teacher of the Month How: Each month, recognize a special teacher. The teacher of the month will be voted on by the faculty. Each teacher who wins the award will receive recognition in the paper, their own personal parking space for the month, a $50 gift card to the mall, and a $25 gift card for a nice restaurant. Why: This will allow individual teachers to be recognized for their hard work and dedication to education. It will mean more to that individual since they were voted on by their peers. It will allow that teacher to feel good about themselves and the jobs that they are doing. Conduct a Yearly Business Fair How: Every April, invite several businesses in the community to participate in the annual business fair. The entire school will spend a few hours learning important things about those businesses such as what they do, how many people work there, and what skills are needed to work there. Why: This allows the business community the opportunity to come to the school and show kids what all they do. It also allows the business community the opportunity to be a part of the students’ education. It provides the students with opportunities to see if they are interested in working a particular business. Presentation by Business Professionals for Students How: About every two months guests from within the community will be invited to discuss the how’s and what’s of their particular career. People will be chosen so that their particular career relates to a specific subject area. For example, a geologist might speak in the science class or a news anchor might speak in a language arts class. Why: This allows businessmen and women from the community the opportunity to share what their career is all about with the students. It allows the students to see a variety of possible career choices, asks questions, and find out interesting things about various careers. Begin a Volunteer Reading Program How: Ask people in the community who would like to get involved with the school, but do not have children who are in school, to volunteer as part of a reading program for students with lower reading levels. The volunteers may come in as often as they wish and read books one-on-one with the students. Why: This allows people the opportunity to volunteer and get involved in the school even if they are not the parent of an individual within the school district. It also provides students the opportunity to better their reading abilities and to get to know people within the community. Start a Living History Program How: Once every three months a social studies class will be assigned an individual from the community who volunteers to be interviewed. The student will interview that person about their lives and events that have happened during their lives. The student will then write a paper about that person and give a presentation to the class over that person. The community members who have been interviewed will be invited to the classroom to hear the students’ presentations and to have a cake and ice cream party afterward. Why: This allows students the opportunity to get to know people within the community. It also allows members of the community to assist the school system and to get involved with the school. It involves people from the community that may not have been involved in the school system before.

Issues in crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Issues in crime - Essay Example Punishments have to be understood in the proper context to state the least. Punishment in modern societies is being seen with a skeptical eye because it creates a sense of empathy and sympathy for the people yet is often viewed as a corrective exercise all the same. This paper shall outline and evaluate the key justifications for the use of punishment in modern societies. The reason why punishment comes into the equation is because the basis of justice is being imparted in a manner that it should be in the first place. It is right to suggest that justice within a society is not all about being fair but about holding a great deal of importance on being just and timely, which unfortunately does not manifest truly in the time and age of today. It is a true saying that justice delayed is justice denied; for this reason justice takes both these things when it is defined in the truest sense of the word. Punishment needs to be understood within the dictums of justice because it is radically associated with the mighty men – the rulers and the ones who govern a particular area or a regiment of soldiers (Marsh, 1984). The concepts of civil rights and of civil law are both functions of the concept of civil society whereby it is that bubble of private action free of government control. It is not free of government action, because government action secures the nature of civil society by the protection of persons against criminal wrongs. The essence of civil society is thus that people are left by government to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, while the government protects the citizens from criminal wrongs of violence, theft, fraud as well as many others. Punishment makes sure the civil society remains in order, and is not given the room to exploit the people in a negative way (Tonry, 2000). To quote as an example of punishment, one could understand the same in this notion. A commoner in today’s society is enticed every now and then to n ewer and fancier products and indeed adopt a similar way of life. For this, he wishes to have more money and if he works, he expects his employers to pay him more than his actual wage. White-collar crime is one form of crime that is on the escalation everywhere in the Western world. It ranges from breach of trust in highly technologically skilled societies to fraudulent charges and computer pilfering. It has been estimated to continue for an indefinite period of time in the future generations (Staddon, 1995). This sort of crime is difficult to define and hence few countries have been able to ascertain its origin, its perspectives and its rationale. This one is literally very hard to describe and examine and equally harder to enforce and arbitrate. The irony with white-collar felonies is that government and the people in particular do not pay heed to its curtailment and if something for the better is not done in this era, then it will surely become a super menace in tomorrow’s age. Within the modern societies, these punishments keep away the offenders and make them feel guilty because this is what is needed in the long run. The crime rate goes down and the people feel contented about the different punishments because these are correcting them more than anything else. However, if these punishments are geared to bring down their personalities, then the end result would be that they become hard core criminals and take law into their own hands, once they are set free from

The evolutionary development of maize Research Paper

The evolutionary development of maize - Research Paper Example In support of this assertion, the findings of the 1980s showed that teosinte correlated with domesticated maize. Thus, the evident variation between maize and teosinte probably might have been as a result of hybridization which can be facilitated by human action. In connection with this, the paper will expound on how and why humans alter the evolution track of maize. The genetic diversity of maize is linked to the multiple domestication of maize. Domestication is one of the processes of evolution of maize where selectivity is employed in determining the final product of the crossing. In other words, species distributions of maize might have changed since the first time maize was domesticated. Due to demand of food, humans selected specific parents and crossed them in order to achieve high yield3. It was as a result of this evolution process of maize that the other evolution process of maize is very hard to determine. In tandem with this assertion, Zeder claims that the selective selection of a gene might have affected the promoter regions of genes in maize hampering with its evolution process4. Bonavia also argues that domestication of maize made man to play with the genetic plasticity of maize in order to achieve a desired grain size5. Additionally, Bonia argues that domestication strongly reduces the sequence of maize diversity in the genes as sociated with the traits that are of importance to man6. In connection with this, a strong selection drastically reduces the genetic diversity of maize. The evolution process of maize has changed significantly for the past few years. This is evidenced by the rapid evolution changes of maize when the human selection of the maize ear is strong. It is also evident that the evolution process of maize advances at a slow pace when the human selection of the ear is weak. Thus, the lack of explanation on the evolution process of maize is as a result of the

The experiment safe Essay Example for Free

The experiment safe Essay In every day lives we come across a number of different objects that are bouncing, colliding and in motion. All these are attributable to the energy changes involved in the process thus obeying the law of conservation of energy. The law of conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed and that the sum total of energy in this universe remains constant. This scientific method of looking at energy changes can be associated and implemented on a variety of simple things and one among them being observation of bouncing objects. This motivation has lead me to investigate, understand and analyse bouncing of a ball on a surface. However, understanding the bouncing mechanism is not as simple as it appears, because there are several factors involved during the bouncing action. For example, the material of the ball, the type and nature of surface over which it freely falls, frictional factors due to air resistance, temperature affecting the surrounding air molecules as well as during the ball-surface interactions. Preliminary Investigation Looking around practically made me notice a variety of different types and sizes of balls. There were golf balls, tennis balls, footballs, sponge balls, cricket balls, bouncy balls, etc. I observed them carefully and noticed that none were similar in any way. The cricket balls were the only ones made out of leather, the bouncy balls were made out of dense rubber, and the golf balls were made of plastic. I tried to test the bounce of these balls on different surfaces like carpeted flooring and wooden flooring. I found that each ball when dropped on these flooring was bouncing to different heights. I felt that each of these balls when dropped on a given flooring surface had different factors that influenced their bounce. Also I noticed that the ball being dropped constantly bounced almost at the same height. This made me feel that I could use this as my chosen experiment for further investigations. As mentioned earlier, the bouncing of balls may look simple, but the energy conversions are quite complex. In simple terms, the work done during a bouncing ball system involves three possible energy sources, 1) Gravitational potential energy (energy due to its position) 2) Kinetic energy (energy due to its motion) 3) frictional energy (lost due to production of heat and sound). The ball acquires Gravitational Potential Energy because of its position and also the ball is working against the gravity to acquire this position. Kinetic energy is gained during the motion of the ball. The frictional energy is lost due to the production of heat and sound. In fact, the conversion of the potential energy results in the kinetic energy of motion until the bounce is over and this potential energy is regained as ball acquires the next position or height. However, on each bounce over a given surface energy of impact is transferred to the surface on which it bounces. Also energy is used up in over coming the air resistance. The energy of impact can be split into sound energy, heat energy or light energy (spark) in the case of very heavy balls (for ex. Iron balls striking iron plate surfaces). This can be totally called as frictional energy loss. The process of bouncing continues with frictional loss occurring on each bounce and this effect could be known as damping. Damping means the loss of height on each bounce on a given surface. The damping effect decreases until the ball attains the minimum potential energy. The damping effect influences the speed and so it tends to slow down the ball each time it impacts the surface. To observe this effect experiments were planned to drop large bouncy balls on different surfaces and to note the rebound heights. Preliminary Results Bounce Quality Number Balls used Carpet flooring Wooden flooring 1 Golf Ball Low Medium 2 Tennis Ball Medium Medium 3 Football Low Low 4 Sponge Ball Low Low 5 Cricket Ball Low Low 6 Bouncy Ball Medium High Below are the formulae of different types of energy and work done: Potential Energy: PE = mgh 1) Where, m= mass of the ball (kg) g= acceleration due to gravity () h= height of the bounce(m) Work Done: Wd = F x d -(2) Where,F= Force (N) d = bounce height (m) Also as part of my preliminary work I did some work using a CD Called Science Investigations. This was very useful as I could see how the ball rebound height would differ if I changed the temperature of the ball. The ball being used was a squash ball. The results I gained were as follows (assuming that the drop height was kept the same-1metre): Temperature(i C) Rebound height(cm)Â   (The rebound height was measured from the bottom of the ball. ) As you can see, these results seem fairly realistic and accurate. As the temperature inside the squash ball increased, the rebound height increased. This was the case in all of the tests. Also using this CD I could investigate the different amounts of energy bring used up when a ball bounces. A ball has 100% gravitational potential energy when it is in your hand. As soon as you release it the amount of gravitational potential energy decreases and instead, 100% Kinetic energy is formed. However, when the ball hits the ground there is no kinetic energy or gravitational potential energy. Instead, there is only elastic potential energy and heat/sound energy. After the ball hits the ground, kinetic energy is regained again, but it is not a full 100%, it is only 80%. 20% of the energy was used up as heat/sound energy. So when the ball is caught in your hand again, the gravitational potential energy returns, but there is only 20% of what there previously was, so the ball does not reach its drop height. Safety: To make the experiment safe, I will have to make sure of the following: That the nail that supports the ball is tightly secured in its position. That the balls are used in a proper manner in all situations. The equipment like the clamp and stand are fixed to the workbench securely. To make this test fair I will have to make sure of the following: That the metre rule is straight and not at an angle. That I release the ball from the given point. E. g. Place the bottom of the bouncy ball in line with the one metre mark, the 0. 8 metre mark etc. Just release the ball without adding any extra force. Keep the temperature in the room constant. Make sure that there is very little air movement. Make sure that you have the same experimental conditions for all the three trials. The factor I will be investigating is the height I drop the ball.

Effects Of Bullying On School Achievement

Effects Of Bullying On School Achievement This chapter critically analyzes extant literature on the relationship of bullying and school achievement. Many studies have been made on the development of the learning process but literature is scant on how bullying impacts upon the intellectual development of children. There is even less research conducted to determine how perceptions of educators or school staff influence the learning process in children. To provide backbone to this study, the following areas of literature were reviewed: Literature on school achievement and theories on motivation that may be applied to bullying in the school environment. Literature on bullying, its definitions, identification of bully and victim, and types of bullying behaviors. Literature on the relationship of bullying and school achievement. Literature on the role of teachers in bullying prevention. School Achievement Definitions of school achievement vary. The term itself is often used interchangeably with academic achievement. Achievement is described as performance which features routine evaluation occurs (Spence Helmreich, 1983) and skills which children learn via instruction or direct intervention (Stetson, Stetson, Sattler, 2001). Other definitions specify the use of tests to measure achievement based on accuracy of solving problems in reading, mathematics, or spelling (Buhs, Ladd, Herald, 2006). Describing achievement among children is important not only in the educational setting. Research work on achievement gaps for instance has several implications not only for the academe but for the economic and social well-being of a particular community. Being able to compare and explain achievement gaps have become an imperative because of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (Magnuson Waldfogel, 2008). Closing the achievement gaps early on in elementary schools is an important step in ameliorat ing the impact of discrimination among minority children who grew up in the United States. At present, the achievement gap is still a reality. For instance, research has established that the entire academic advancement process earning outstanding grades, preparing for college, applying for aid, going through the complex application process for college, and obtaining good recommendation letters puts minorities such as Black and Hispanic students at a disadvantage (Downey, 2008). One way to break through the barriers of racial inequality is to close the test-score gap (Barton, 2003). Test scores account for a great percentage in determining high school graduation rate, preparation for college, and gaining a professional license in the future (Beltfield Levin, 2007). The measure for achievement is predominantly the test score on various stills such as reading, math, and vocabulary. Although the test score is just but one component and does not account for all factors related to acad emic achievement, is performs a gatekeeping function for consequential life course transitions (Magnuson Waldfogel, 2008, p. 2). For this study, school achievement is defined as a students degree of comprehension of proficiency and information with particular skills such as reading, mathematics, and spelling. The Ecological model of achievement School achievements is commonly assumed to be a cumulative function of family, school, and community experiences, and is therefore hard to measure (Rivkin, Hanushek, Kain, 2005). Since achievement is a holistic process where several factors come into play, studying achievement is an empirical challenge because complete family, community, and school histories, and such data are rarely if ever available (Rivkin, Hanushek, Kain, 2005). Efforts to understanding how achievement develops in children use theoretical models such as the Ecological model of development (Broussard Garrison, 2004). The Expectancy-Value model of development points to the influence of social contexts and interactions with other people as significant determinants of childrens achievement in the school setting (Eccles et al., 1983). The Expectancy-Value theory posits that achievement occurs upon the presence of an environment fit between childrens learning needs and their socialization experiences at various levels. Children start their early socialization within the family and soon progress into wider and more complex settings such as the school. It is in the classrooms and the school environment that children are provided a venue to pursue new life experiences which are crucial to the intellectual growth and development. When the school environment becomes incongruent to childrens needs, they may develop a low expectancy for success that may in consequence result to poor academic outcomes (Eccles et al., 1993). A poor person-environment fit may lead to rejection, frustration, violence, and victim ization. Alternatively, poor fit can lead to rejection and victimization whereby students become passively isolated from their peers. It is possible, therefore, that social experiences such as being bullied may reduce a students sense of competence for social and perhaps, academic situations. Further to the role of the aforementioned demographic characteristics, we were interested in the impact that students feelings about their school may have on their behaviour, in particular their involvement in bullying and victimization. School climate has been studied from different theoretical and methodological perspectives and with regard to a myriad of developmental and organizational outcomes (Kuperminc, Leadbeater, Emmons, Blatt, 1997). Social-ecological theorists suggest that perceptions are paramount in understanding the way in which individuals function within their environments (Lewin, 1935). This hypothesis has received support in a substantial body of research examining the role of percepti ons of school climate in a variety of important outcomes. For example, Solomon, Battistich, Kim, and Watson (1996) found that teacher supportiveness was associated with more positive behaviour in the classroom and positive perceptions of connectedness among students. In other research, Kuperminc and colleagues (1997) demonstrated that perceptions of school climate were associated with psychosocial maladjustment in adolescents, both in terms of internalizing and externalizing problems. Similarly, Griffith (1999) found that perceptions of an orderly and fair school with positive student-teacher relationships moderated both internalizing and externalizing problems among students. Students sense of connectedness to their school has been investigated as a buffer between exposure to violence and later violent behaviour (Brookmeyer, Fanti, Henrich, 2006) and the investigators found that students who felt more connected to their schools showed a reduction in violent behaviour over time. Feeling connected to school may make it more likely that stud ents will confide in teachers or peers about experiences of victimization, which may in turn help them to cope with these problems or avoid behaving violently themselves (Brookmeyer et al., 2006). In another study, Totura and colleagues (2009) found that perceptions of school climate as being characterized by misconduct or as having higher adult monitoring impacted the likelihood that students with internalizing or externalizing behaviour problems would be classified as bullies or victims by teachers. In the current study, we predicted that students who indicated feeling that their school is a fair and safe place, that they feel connected to their peers, and that they perceive their teachers as helpful and supportive would report lower rates of bullying and victimization. Furthermore, we saw these perceptions as integral to understanding the overall climate of a school. Definition of Bullying The most comprehensive and extensively used definition of bullying is provided by Dan Olweus; very few studies exist that do not cite his original work (Dake et al., 2003; Dulmus et al., 2004). This study used the definition of bullying developed by Olweus (1993), which states, a student is being bullied or victimized when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other students (Olweus, 1993, p. 9). Negative actions are further defined as when someone intentionally inflicts, or attempts to inflict, injury or discomfort upon another (p. 9). Negative actions can be verbal (including threatening, taunting, teasing, or name-calling) or physical (such as hitting, kicking, pushing, shoving, or pinching). Negative actions also may occur without verbal or physical interaction, such as making faces or gestures, intentionally excluding someone from a group, spreading rumors, or refusing to comply with the wishes of another. Different types of bullying are discussed in more detail in a later section. The definition emphasizes repeated interactions that are carried out over time. According to Olweus (1993), it is reasonable to assume that any time students are forced together within social environments where they have little choice over with whom they interact, tendencies to bully may arise. Further, some conflict among students is natural and expected. Students may come to school in an irritable mood because of a confrontation at home, or they might be tired or hungry. Students also may have a disagreement with one another that leads to a more serious altercation, though still not necessarily a bullying episode. The focus toward repeated interactions carried out over time is meant to exclude random interactions or isolated incidents that occur in a nonsystematic way. Random and isolated incidents are seen as somewhat natural, with less severe consequences for those involved. Thus, bullying is typically defined as occurring repeatedly and over time. Additionally, it is not considered bullying unless the targeted individual has difficulty defending him or herself against the bullying behavior. The overall intent is to focus on systematic victimization among participants with an imbalance of power or strength. Depending on the type of bullying that occurs strength may refer to physical, emotional, or mental strength. Differences in emotional or mental strength may be more difficult to identify than differences in physical strength. Regardless, two individuals of approximately the same physical, psychological or social strength that socially interact in an aggressive manner are not considered to be engaged in bullying behavior. There must be an imbalance in power or strength between the participants involved for the episode to be considered bullying. The next section addresses bullying in the school environment. Who bullies and who is victimized? Studies indicate that bullies often come from homes where physical punishment is used, where the children are taught to strike back physically as a way to handle problems, and where parental involvement and warmth are frequently lacking. Students who regularly display bullying behaviors are generally defiant or oppositional toward adults, antisocial, and are likely to break school rules. In contrast to prevailing myths, bullies appear to have little anxiety and to possess strong self-esteem. There is little evidence to support the contention that they victimize others because they feel bad about themselves (Batsche Knoff, 1994; Olweus, 1993). Students who are victims of bullying are typically anxious, insecure, cautious, and suffer from low self-esteem, rarely defending themselves or retaliating when confronted by students who bully them. They may lack social skills and friends, and they are often socially isolated. victims tend to be close to their parents and may have parents who can be described as overprotective. The major defining physical characteristic of victims is that they tend to be physically weaker than their peers-other physical characteristics such as weight, dress, or wearing eyeglasses do not appear to be significant factors that can be correlated with victimization (Batsche Knoff, 1994; Olweus, 1993). Victims often fear school and consider school to be an unsafe and unhappy place. The act of being bullied tends to increase some students isolation because their peers do not want to lose status by associating with them or because they do not want to increase the risks of being bullied themselves. A child being bullied leads to depression and low self-esteem, problems that can carry into adulthood (Olweus, 1993; Batsche Knoff, 1994). Bullying in the school environment An important feature of bullying is its essential public nature (Jeffrey, Miller, Linn, 2001, p. 145). Those who bully tend to do so in front of an audience of their peers. Therefore, bullying is best conceptualized as an interaction between the individual and his or her peer group, school, family, and community (Swearer Doll, 2001, p. 19). The seminal definition of bullying provided by Olweus also describes a behavioral interaction rather than an individual or a behavior. Thus, bullying interactions occur when individual characteristics of the child who is bullying are combined with the actions of their peers (including those of the individual who is being bullied), the reactions of teachers and other adults at school, the physical characteristics of the school grounds, family factors, cultural characteristics, and community factors (Swearer Doll). Therefore, propensities for bullying are the result of continued interactions between individuals and their immediate environment. Bullying has been commonly misidentified as occurring primarily in larger, city schools (Olweus, 1993). Results from Norway and Sweden show this to be invalid. Additionally, one study (Dulmus et al., 2004) done in a rural school setting reported that just over 82% of students experienced some form of bullying at least once in the three months prior to the study. Students who were called mean names, made fun of, or teased was the most common type of bullying experienced by students and being threatened or forced to do things and being called racist names were the least common types of bullying experienced. As many as 24.1% of students responded they had been threatened or forced to do things and 26.1% reported being called names based on race or color (Dulmus et al., 2004). Additional research has shown that the size of the class or the school appears to be of little importance for the amount of bullying found in the class or school (Dake et al., 2003; Olweus, 1993). There is a natural hierarchy of status in schools, commonly referred to as popularity, which exists among students. The top 15% of students can be classified as very popular, the next 45% as accepted, and another 20% as average or ambiguous (Thompson Cohen, 2005, p. 17). As a result, approximately 80% of children are not at serious risk of being bullied. On the other hand, the remaining 20% of students who are considered in the bottom of the social hierarchy are at serious risk for bullying (Thompson Cohen, 2005). Younger students also are at different stages of social development and may not yet understand that bullying is unacceptable behavior. However, recognition of bullying as unacceptable behavior is not always enough to deter it from happening. In addition, older students have generally had more opportunities to acquire the necessary skills and assertiveness to either respond more effectively to bullying or to cope with being subjected to such behavior (Smith, Shu, Madsen, 2001). Types of Bullying Olweus (1993) research initially distinguished between direct and indirect bullying. Direct bullying involves relatively open attacks on the target and may include words, gestures, facial expressions, or physical contact, such as hitting, kicking, pushing, shoving, and pinching. Indirect bullying is more covert and less visible, generally achieved through social isolation or intentional exclusion from a peer group. This can be accomplished through different methods and will differ according to age and development (Crick, Nelson, Morales, Cullerton-Sen, Casas, Hickman, 2001). For example, in early childhood, this might be accomplished by one individual simply telling another that they do not want to play together anymore. In middle childhood and adolescence, students may not invite others to join in some activity or may ignore an individual while paying excessive attention to another. The distinction between direct and indirect bullying has been further divided into three categories: physical bullying; verbal bullying; and relational bullying, which are discussed in the following sections (Liepe-Levinson Levinson, 2005; Olweus, 1993; Ralston, 2005; Smokowski Kopasz, 2005). Physical Bullying Physical bullying refers to hitting, pushing, shoving, slapping, kicking, tripping, and other such bodily attacks, as well as damaging anothers property (Howard, Horne, Joliff, 2001; Liepe-Levinson Levinson, 2005; Ralston, 2005; Smokowski Kopasz, 2005). Physical bullying is described as action-oriented and often uses direct bullying tactics (Smokowski Kopasz). Until recently, the majority of U.S. research about bullying has been conducted as a subset of aggression and has focused primarily on physical aggression (Griffin Gross, 2004). Aggression and bullying contain conceptual similarities, but their comparison largely depends on how each has been measured within individual research studies. Due to the relatively open nature of the attacks, physical bullying is considered the most visible and least sophisticated among the various types of bullying (Liepe-Levinson Levinson, 2005; Smokowski Kopasz, 2005). Less than one-third of all incidents reported by children involve physical bullying (Liepe-Levinson Levinson). Those who engage in physical bullying may become more aggressive over time and continue to manifest bullying in adulthood (Dake et al., 2003; Smokowski Kopasz, 2005). In addition, students who are targeted for physical bullying are generally targeted for verbal and relational bullying as well (Olweus, 1993). Research also shows that physical bullying is used more in lower grades (i.e., primary school) among younger students (Olweus, 1993). Verbal Bullying Verbal bullying is the most common form of bullying according to student reports in one study, accounting for nearly 70% of all reported incidents (Liepe-Levinson Levinson, 2005). Verbal bullying includes teasing, taunting, name-calling, racial slurs, or any instance where words are used to hurt or humiliate another. Due to the ease and quickness with which verbal bullying occurs, this type of behavior often goes undetected, making such interactions more difficult to respond to for teachers (Smokowski Kopasz, 2005). Verbal bullying often is a precursor to physical and relational bullying (Liepe-Levinson Levinson, 2005). Relational Bullying Relational bullying includes such acts as ignoring individuals, social isolation, intentional exclusion from peer groups, gossiping, and spreading rumors (Liepe-Levinson Levinson, 2005; Ralston, 2005; Smokowski Kopasz, 2005). Relational bullying also includes aggressive gestures, such as staring, rolling ones eyes, sighing, frowning, sneering, and other hostile body language (Liepe-Levinson Levinson). It is most powerful and prevalent at the onset of adolescence, when children are exploring their identities and expanding their social networks, also making it very difficult to identify. Verbal and relational bullying are quite common and are relatively unnoticed by teachers as students report these behaviors occurring more frequently than physical bullying (Griffin Gross, 2004; Hazler, Miller, Carney, Green, 2001). Oddly enough, physical bullying continues to attract more attention in the school environment. This is despite the widespread attention given to longstanding emotional and social forms of bullying as precursors to school shootings and suicides. This is most likely due to the visible nature of physical bullying and its relative ease of identification. Cyberbullying Historically, bullying primarily occurred in school during school hours; however, with the common use of computers and the internet since the 1990s, on-line bullying has become an increasing occurrence amongst adolescent girls (Li, 2005). The internet offers the perfect tool for mass, covert bullying due to its anonymity, its difficulty to regulate, and the removal of traditional social rules in regards to appropriate communication (Giuseppe, Galimberti, 2003). The nature of new technology makes it possible for cyber bullying to occur more secretly, spread more rapidly and be easily preserved (Li, 2006, p. 161). Bullying is a major problem in schools, and it seems to be on the rise with the widespread use of the Internet. Cyber bullying, according to Willard (2004) as quoted by Li (2006), can occur in various formats including flaming, harassment, cyber stalking, denigration (putdowns), masquerade, outing and trickery and exclusion à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ it can lead to stalking, death threats and suicide (Li, 2006). Unlike face-to-face bullying, people often feel that cyberspace is impersonal and they can therefore say whatever they want. Further, it is reported that females prefer this type of bullying (Nelson, 2003; Li, 2006). Electronic bullying allows a persons identity to remain hidden and can pose less of a physical confrontation that face-to-face bullying. Relationship of Bullying and Academic Achievement Bullying behaviour is a social, group process that is prevalent in the school environment and there are well documented findings regarding the behavioural and health consequences of bullying behaviour at school for both direct and relational bullying profiles (Kumpulainen et al., 1998; Owens, Slee, Shute, 2000; Williams, Chambers, Logan, Robinson, 1996; Wolke et al., 2000). However, there is a dearth of research that has considered the association between bullying behaviour per se and academic achievement among primary school children. Olweus (1978, 1983) first speculated that aggressive behaviour of bullies towards peers could be considered as a reaction to frustrations and failures at school. However, data from a large sample of boys from Greater Stockholm provided no evidence to suggest that aggressive behaviour was a consequence of poor grades at school. Rather, it was found that both bullies and victims had lower than average marks than neutral children (Olweus, 1978). In a recent study, Schwartz, Farver, Chang, and Lee-Shin (2002) reported that children who exhibited poor academic performance in school tended to emerge as frequent targets of bullying. However, it was only a subset of victimised children, the aggressive victims (or bully/victims) who were likely to be characterised by poor school performance (Schwartz, 2000). What remains to be established by research studies is whether poor academic achievement leads to bullying involvement or whether being bullied leads to poorer school achievement, possibly mediated by less participation in school. Research on peer rejection has also considered the relationship to academic achievement and school adjustment. Peer rejection is predominantly assessed by standardized scores that are comparable across classes and school, but does not take into account individual bullying roles within classes. Ladd (1990) considered the academic behaviour and school adjustment of children over the first year of school life and reported that rejected children had less favourable school perceptions, significantly higher levels of school avoidance and significantly lower school performance compared to popular, average, and neglected children. While the research is clear that students with behavior problems do less well in school (Shanahan 2000; McLeod Keiser 2004; Trzensniewski et al. 2006; Allard 2007; Buchmann et al. 2008), it is unclear whether engagement in bullying behaviors directly leads to negative academic outcomes (Miller 2008). Moreover, empirical research has provided mixed support for a cross-sectional relationship specifically between bullying behavior and academic achievement (Nansel et al. 2001; Spriggs et al. 2007). On the one hand, Nansel et al. (2001) found that persons who bullied others showed poorer school adjustment, both in terms of academic achievement and perceived school climate (p. 2097). Glew et al. (2005) criticized Nansel et al.s (2001) findings because although the authors found important evidence regarding the potential detrimental effects of bullying on self perceived academic achievement and school attendance, no objective measures of academic achievement or attendance were collected (p .1026). In contrast, these authors, utilizing objective measures of school performance, found that being a bully was not significantly correlated with lower achievement scores. More recently, Spriggs et al. (2007), using the 2001 Health Behaviors in School-Aged Children survey (HBSC), found that among a representative sample of sixth to tenth graders that bullying impacts achievement. Their results also indicated that this relationship varies by race. For Whites and Hispanics, being a bully, victim, or a combination of the two, was associated with poorer academic performance. However, for Blacks, bullying was not related to academic performance (Spriggs et al. 2007). Instead, Blacks family and peer relationships had a greater influence on achievement than did bullying. This paper presents a meta-analytic review of 33 studies, with a total of 29 552 participants, that examined the concurrent association between peer victimization and academic achievement. The results revealed a small but significant negative correlation between peer victimization and academic achievement under both the random-effects model (r=à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢.12, p This study utilized a multi-informant approach to investigate the concurrent association between peer victimization and school functioning in a sample of 135 Latino children (55 boys; 80 girls) in the third, fourth, and fifth grades. The children attended elementary schools in distressed urban neighborhoods. Victimization by peers was associated with low grade point averages (GPA) and poor academic engagement. The analyses showed academic engagement mediated the relation between peer victimization and GPA. Moderator analyses indicated that the negative association between peer victimization and academic engagement was exacerbated for children with numerous friends in their classrooms. Additional moderator analyses revealed that the negative association between victimization and engagement was stronger for children with many aggressive friends. Overall, the results extend past research by investigating mediators and moderators of the association between peer victimization and school f unctioning in an understudied population (Nakamoto, 2008). This short-term longitudinal investigation focused on associations between victimization in the peer group and academic functioning over a 1-year period. The authors used a multi-informant approach to assess peer victimization, symptoms of depression, and academic outcomes for 199 elementary schoolchildren (average age of 9.0 years; 105 boys, 94 girls). Frequent victimization by peers was associated with poor academic functioning (as indicated by grade point averages and achievement test scores) on both a concurrent and a predictive level. Additionally, the authors analyses provided some evidence that peer group victimization predicts academic difficulties through the mediating influence of depressive symptoms. Taken together, these results highlight the potential negative impact of victimization by peers on childrens academic functioning (Schwartz et al., 2005). Adjustment difficulties such as loneliness and depression are less likely to occur among students who are liked by their peers and who have friends in comparison to those children who are isolated and alone (Erdley et al., 2001). Thus, peer acceptance and reciprocal friendships may pevent socio-emotional maladjustment. In the context of school bulyying, students who are bullied may not gain a sense of protection from affiliation with a group (Beran Violato, 2004). These limited social skills and access to friends increase the likelihood of bullying. Furthermore, this lack of peer support may inhibit children from seeking academic support from teachers. If children do not trust their teachers to stop the bullying, they may not seek their assistance with academic difficulties. It is likely that children who are bullied disengage from their learning, experiencing little enjoyment and low consciousness for academic work. In addition, children whose parents provide little support for their education, are likely to experience academic difficulties. When these students also exhibit behaviour problems in the form of hyperactivity, aggression, and poor social skills, they may experience learning difficulties. Other studies, however, show contrary results. Hanish and Guerra (2002) examined the effects of peer victimization on levels of academic achievement and determined that peer victimization was correlated with concurrent and subsequent aggressive behavior, inattention in the classroom, delinquency, symptoms of anxiety and depression, rejection, and low popularity among classmates. It was not however, correlated with academic maladjustment or withdrawal. (p. 85). Being bullied may have affected some aspects of academic life such as inattention in the classroom and low popularity among classmates but it did not predict low achievement (Hanish Guerra, 2002). In addition, Woods and Wolke (2004) reported achievement levels to be similar between children who are victimized and those who are not. Some victimized children may experience poor achievement whereas others may not. Role of Teachers in Bullying Prevention The basic assumptions are that changing the environment is more powerful than changing individuals, that prevention is better than intervention, and that changing the environment requires support and understanding among teachers. Teachers understand the levels of influence and recognize the power of the family, the community, and the popular culture to influence behavior. What they often do not understand is the extent or limit of their sphere of influence. When teachers are asked to identify risk factors for the development of bullying, they generally rank the family and cultural factors such as television films, and pop music as having the strongest impact on childrens development of bullying behaviors. When teachers are asked to indicate which factors they can influence, they recognize for the most part, that their influence is limited to the classroom and school environment. Teachers are encouraged to focus their energy and resources on changing the areas within their sphere of influence, that is, the classroom and the school. Because of the amount of teacher contact with students, perceptions of teachers regarding student bullying forms an important first step in minimizing this risk. Research found that teachers considered bullying the second most serious student behavior after drug use, (24)

Precious vs Push

While reading Push, by Sapphire you are engaged in Precious’ every thought, whether it was random, or a part of what was going on in that very moment. You knew her responses to what was said to her, even if she did not respond aloud to what was being said. In the book, her own personal thoughts were intertwined with the dialect of the story. I enjoyed that aspect of the book, while in the film if you were to here all of the random thoughts and responses it would seem to be too much going on, and to confuse the reviewer. I enjoyed the fact that in the film I could look at the expression on Precious’ face and know, courtesy of the book, exactly what she was thinking. A film adaptation of a book should complement the book, still telling the story accurately and getting the characters personality and struggles or successes across and I believe the film Precious did just that. I can appreciate the book, but I am more drawn into the characters in the film than in the book. The book and the film work together and bounce off of one another to draw out what the other left dormant. In the book, you learn the stories of the classmates of the alternative school Precious was at, in the film they were able to come alive. You see ample personality in all of the girls in the film. Reading the book first, I paid more attention to the girl’s personalities in the film, maybe for the sake of comparing and contrasting, but with the book and the film combined I feel like I know those girls. In the film, the teacher of the Pre-G. E. D class, Ms. Rain was cast as a fair-skinned woman, pretty with nice hair. In the book, she was described as a darker skinned woman with dred locked hair. I enjoyed that the role was cast to fair skinned women and she was a valuable character. Yes, this woman fought for Precious sake in the film and the book, but the casting fairer skinned Ms. Rain I feel could be used to inspire Precious. Emphasized more in the book than the film, you hear Precious refer to being light skinned or correlating lighter skin with beauty and better treatment. For her to be exposed to a lighter skinned, beautiful woman that is teaching her, caring for her, helping her push is what she needs to realize who she is herself and what kind of woman she can develop into. The film cast a role of a social worker who was not white in my eyes, and in the book she is a white woman. I liked that Precious was not sure of her race, it gave a tone of the film that the social worker was a part of a ‘none-race’. A woman of a none-race was talking to her, and even though she didn’t see it, helping her. Precious was primed to believe that race mattered in relation to her well being. Being exposed to this, maybe Precious can realize that the race of those she came in contact with did not matter. A strength about the book is the ability to actually go in depth about parts of Precious’ story than the film does. If some of those things were included in the film, it would drag along and not be relative to the main points in the story that the film had to get across in a two hour period. In the book, I am grateful that Precious got to experience the incest survivor’s group meeting. She was able to see that others shared her same experience. She even got the experience of going downtown, which I got the impression that she had never been or hadn’t gone often. The book also gives a grime account of the sexual abuse committed by Precious’ father and the confused and hateful feelings she experiences from it. Honestly, I’m glad it was addressed only in the book, and not the film. I admired the director’s use of short cut scenes and flashbacks to tell those sides of the story instead of actually telling and showing the story of the abuse. The film also showed Precious and her fellow classmate’s infatuation with the male nurse John whereas the book did not include that at all. Strengths in the film were characterized by the opportunities to laugh at some of the characters, and to see that Precious sometimes too enjoyed herself. I appreciate the film showing the friendships that developed between her and the fellow classmates. I also found the most powerful scene that the book did no justice to is the monologue by Precious’ mother at the end of the film. Though a similar monologue takes place in the book, you get to see it on the actress’ face and you finally get to figure out what she was thinking all these years. Both the film and book had decent endings; one did not excite me more than the other. In the article by Hilton and von Hippel, 1996, we are given an explanation of Priming and its relevance to prejudice and stereotyping. I believe Precious had such a hard time with who she was, beside the effects of physical and sexual abuse from both her parents, due in large part to the emotional and verbal abuse she suffered from her mother. Everyday Precious was verbally put down and influenced by her mother that she equated to nothing and the only way to get through life was dependence on government aide and the negative demeanor towards whites. As much as Precious’ mother was negative toward whites, she put Precious down because she was black. Hilton and von Hippel state that how we process information is influenced by information that we have previously encountered. Precious previous encounters are her own life, and how her mother raised her to depend on welfare and be taught that white people are in place to restrict her progress. Prior experience determines what we see and hear and how we interpret that information and how we store it for later use† (Hilton & von Hippel, 1996). Precious was primed to believe stereotypes about her own race and self due to the influence of her mother. Hilton & Hippel say that â€Å"priming plays a dramatic role in the perception and evaluation of out group members†, but in the book and the film we see Precious’ inward perception of herself due to the influence of her mother and also toward out-group members such as whites, from the influence of her mother.

International Marketing of Ikea Essay

Table of Contents Table of Contents1 1. Executive Summary1 2. Introduction1 3. Internationalization2 4. Foreign Market Segmentation and Targeting3 5. Environmental Analysis5 5.1 SWOT Analysis6 5.2 Environmental Analysis of Host Country- China8 5.3 From the perspective of IKEA International Group10 6. International Marketing Objectives11 7. Foreign Market Entry Strategy11 8. Product/Service Mix Preparation14 8.1 Product adaptation14 8.2 Product publicity15 8.3 Product price15 8.4 New product development16 8.5 Market expansion16 8.6 Service Mix16 9. Conclusion17 Appendices18 1. Executive Summary This report emphasizes on the analysis of the overseas expansion of the global brand named IKEA, who has already built a competitive advantage in the international furniture competition. It has the largest part of market share and got huge success in Europe which leads it to expand to Asia and other market of the world. Analysis of all the environmental aspects in China shows that China is the best country to invest in, although there are still some weaknesses and threats exists. 2. Introduction IKEA is the world’s largest furniture retailer which founded in 1943. In 2009, the world’s leading marketing research organizations of Interbrand selected into â€Å"Global 100 Most Valuable Brands† list, the IKEA ranked 28th for about 12 billion U.S. dollars in brand value, which is constantly increasing. IKEA stores were founded in the most important shopping areas of 240 stores in Europe, the North America, Asia and Africa. IKEA’s success in the retail industry can be attributed to its vast experience in the retail market, product differentiation, and cost leadership. This report will analysis the international marketing strategy of IKEA as follows aspects: internationalization, foreign market segmentation and targeting, internal and external business environment based PEST and SWOT analysis, international objectives, foreign marketing enter strategy and product/service mix preparation. 3. Internationalization Internationalization appears when the company expands its R&D, production, selling and other business activities into globalization markets (Hollensen, 2004). IKEA group is the most internationalized retailing of furniture worldwide. Chairman Ingvar Kamprad opened his first furniture in 1943. He spent almost ten years on building and developing the brands from mail order business to furniture business in Swedish. In 50’s of last century, forced domestic counterparts extrusion, IKEA was forced to go abroad to find suppliers of raw materials, but to find low cost instead. This is the IKEA’s first globalization of production attempt. Since in 1953, the first abroad store was opened successfully in Danmark. Then IKEA rapidly expanded to the whole European region. With the success of global sourcing, In the early 70s, the Swedish furniture market was stagnant, IKEA naturally turn their attention to the international market. Then IKEA group began a huge globalization of market from that time. In the road of international expansion, IKEA Annual Report (2002) showed that Inter IKEA Systems B.V granted franchises as part of a detailed international expansion scheme. IKEA implemented the brand integration strategy, in order to form the absolute control of the brand. IKEA is not content with merely control of even the world’s largest furniture products channel, IKEA group would hope that their own brands and its own proprietary products can eventually cover the world. IKEA pioneered the â€Å"brand integration† model, which achieve the manufacturer brands and retail brands to fusion of commercial brands  perfectly. Based on this concept, IKEA has been insisted all products by their own personally designed and have the patent, each year more than 100 designers worked in the day and night to ensure that â€Å"all products, all of the patent† in order to achieve all the products are marked â€Å"Design and Quality, IKEA of Sweden† targets. So for IKEA is concerned, it didn’t have the so-called â€Å"upstream manufacturers† pressure, or any manufacturer could give it so-called â€Å"distribution chain management.† In terms of IKEA is the world’s only success of the organization to put up both channel management and product management, its â€Å"integrated brand strategy† is the large key to the successful integration of industrial chain. 4. Foreign Market Segmentation and Targeting Early in this year, IKEA has opened many stores and market was very mature in the Europe. Until 1985 IKEA decided to enter the North America market. Although it didn’t achieve success like experience across the Europe in the beginning of in the USA, IKEA has adopted adaptive strategies according to local actual situation. It got the finally success in the USA market. Forthwith it expended quickly in the Asia. IKEA has six areas in the world until now, which is Europe, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Caribbean. At present, IKEA is developing the Asia market and existed markets have six countries. Three Asia countries are selected to penetrating and expanding by screening process as follows. IKEA had furniture market and wanted to expand in Singapore and China, In addition, Korea is very beneficial market for IKEA while not yet opened. Singapore is the developed country, but come under the world financial crisis and slump in global trade impact, this exceptionally o pen economy (exports of goods and services represent over 200% of GDP) GDP fell by 9.5% from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009(Appendix 1). Private consumption fell from 2008’s levels, which declined by 0.5%. In order to deal with weakness in private consumption, government expenditure accelerated to promote and enhance the public’s consumption of 8.3% (Appendix 2). Korea is also well-developed country in Asia. Despite the world economic deep impact on Korea, Korea staged a strong recovery in 2009. GDP grew by 0.2% in the year (Appendix 3). Weak private consumption rebounded before early 2009 (Appendix 4), which is the most obvious change in durable goods and services. Consumer  sentiment improved during the year. China, the economic rate and consumption rate are the highest over these Asia countries. GDP is forecast to grow by 9.6% in 2010. Growth will be stronger in the first half of 2010.China economic situation is superb (Appendix 5). Private consumption growth is forecast to speed up to 12% in 2010, from 9.0% in 2009, responding to rising incomes and improving consumer confidence (Appendix 6). Based on the above considerations, IKEA should consider expending Asia market. In my opinion, China is worth of investment. Because of large area and population, IKEA should open in all capital cities in China. From opened the first store in 1998, IKEA developed slowly in China. According to the IKEA Web site, China’s market identity is the largest supplier as a worth of 15 billion U.S. dollars market every year, not is the biggest sales market. Currently, IKEA has 350 suppliers in China, 21% of the world’s goods from China. Because of Chinese consumer awareness of its own position with IKEA dislocation, this is precisely an important factor of the slow expansion of IKEA in China. With the rise of local home chains, as well as foreign opponents’ attack, to maintain the position in the Chinese domestic m arket, IKEA must expand. Publicly available data, now IKEA hold home products market in China account for 43% of the share. To sum up, IKEA’s expansion and development is necessary and very beneficial in China. 5. Environmental Analysis IKEA International Group, a furniture group aims to provide customers with variety of good-looking& affordable home products worldwide, is said to be an miracle of business in the last century. Now it has over 200 retail stores in over 30 countries. It needs considerable of analysis before entering foreign markets. 5.1 SWOT Analysis Strengths of IKEA †¢ Well known in China. Chinese consumers knew IKEA as a big brand before it entered China market, so this helps IKEA to enter Chinese market more smoothly. †¢ Highly reputation. As IKEA is a globally brand, Chinese customers regard it more reliable than other furniture companies. †¢ Stable relationship. IKEA could get materials at a reasonable price due to the stable relationships that between IKEA and its suppliers. †¢ Plate packing. By using plate packing, IKEA could reduce cost from transportation and storage. †¢ Environmental protective and healthy material for customers. What material IKEA choose are both environmental protective and healthy, which enable customers use IKEA products without trepidation. Weaknesses of IKEA †¢ Much reliant on Europe Market. 82% IKEA stores located in this region so IKEA will have difficulties to face the Asia market. (Ikea United Kingdom (2005) www.ikea.co.uk Accessed 23rd Nov 2005) †¢ Unreasonable rout design. When shopping in IKEA you have to walk along the only aisle IKEA set and will get no way to go backward. What’s more, you still have to go along the aisle till the item you want although you have decided what to buy. This may cost customers much time on it. †¢ Inflexible promotion. Due to the low price, there is no more room for IKEA to provide with promotions on products. †¢ High price for Chinese consumers. Although products price in Chinese market are almost lowest in the world, many Chinese consumers still can not afford them. IKEA should price the products based on the Chinese actual situation in order to get profit. †¢ Distribution problems. In China, popularization of cars is not high like IKEA other market, so it will take several days for customers to wait for the distribution from IKEA and also they will be charged a high amount of distribution fee for it. Opportunities of IKEA †¢ Variety in goods categories. There are about 9,500 household items in IKEA, which is far more than other furniture companies. Customers will have more chance to choose from when shopping at IKEA. †¢ Green IKEA. What IKEA advocated is that to live a green life so this can be a good point which attracts customers. Threats of IKEA †¢ Professional malls. Some big professional malls such as professional bathe mall, professional kitchen mall maybe one big threat, customers may prefer the professional mall when they just buy bathroom or kitchen products. †¢ Other brands. There are many household brands in Chinese market now, such as B&Q, Macalline, etc. Some of them are local brands so they know Chinese market better than IKEA. †¢ Change of customers needs. Customers needs will  not be the same all year long, IKEA have to research frequently and find out what is profitable in order to make profits. 5.2 Environmental Analysis of Host Country- China Political system China is a socialist country powered by the Communist Party and a new People’s Republic of China was established in 1949. In 1978, China initiated the â€Å"reform and open† policy which emancipated the mind of Chinese people and make them become innovated in the future. The year when IKEA has first entered Chinese market was 1998 and it was just the 20th anniversary since Chinese â€Å"reform and open† policy in 1978. As a developing socialist country, China is fresh to most people and groups in rest of the world and it is really of great potential because it was more and more independent as China is developing day by day, many international groups have realized how potential the China market would be and then started to locate there branch companies in China at that time. As a developing country, China will always persist in taking the positive attitude towards all the advantageous investments from abroad. In the incoming year 2001 China accessed to the World T rade Organization successfully, which makes China a more open country and market. Economical environment in China There are 8 cities (in 6 provinces) (one of the eight is opening soon) in China where IKEA Group located its retail stores. Beijing, Shanghai, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Sichuan, etc. The forms below are showing the contrast of economical phenomenon between these locations and the rest. From the appendix 7 we can see the national average of disposable income in 2008 is about 15000yuan per capita, while the disposable income per capita in the six locations are mostly far more than the average figure. This means IKEA positioned itself in a more economic developing area while its target customers have higher total income and disposable income. Appendix 8 is part of the household consumption expenditure by region in 2008. It is clear that the six IKEA retail locations are all at the higher level of the consumption of expenditure than other areas. The high consumption expenditure in these six locations shows more buying potential to products. Appendix 9 is part of the total investment in fixed assets in the whole country by status of  registration and region in 2008.Most of the foreign investment in six provinces (Beijing and Shanghai are direct-controlled municipalities) are higher than other areas where IKEA didn’t locate its retail stores at. This illustrates that the more the foreign investment an area has the more open the area will be, the more easily the people accept the foreign products and ideas. Social environment Demographics †¢ Population and Density China has the largest amount of population in the world. In other world, it is the biggest potential market in the world. The eight cities where IKEA located his stores in all have large amount of population, especially Shanghai& Jiangsu& Guangdong because they are all along the coast in China. Places along the coast in China always have high density of population for there are more chances to get money and good development for individual at those places. Population stands for the purchasing power while more population means more potential purchasing power. †¢ Living standards Youth in China are more open minded than before, they will after whatever they like from abroad. As the development of economic and the quickening pace of life some so-called â€Å"white collars† in China don’t have much time and money to buy some luxurious furniture and IKEA is a good choice for them because what IKEA initiates is simple, durable and affordable furniture. In China, it is a fashion action to buy furniture from IKEA. 5.3 From the perspective of IKEA International Group †¢ IKEA located its Chinese headquarter in Beijing at the beginning when it came to China but in 2003 the headquarters moved to Shanghai because IKEA regards Shanghai a central city of China for it has the convenient sea transportation as well as the air transports which are advantages for IKEA, an international group couldn’t live without transport. †¢ IKEA relocated its Asian headquarter from Singapore to Shanghai which shows the great appreciation to large potential market in China. 6. International Marketing Objectives According to the previous analysis, the advantages and disadvantages for IKEA to develop in China are clear. Now IKEA have to make its marketing objectives in China market according to the analysis above. †¢ IKEA has high reputation among Chinese youth; word of mouth can be a good way of advertising so its targeting audience should be young person. In this case, lower the cost of operating a retail store is what should do next. †¢ The products in IKEA China are good but the delivery fee is terribly high. This will reduce the loyalty of customers. †¢ There are eight (one of the eight is opening soon) IKEA retail stores in China till 2010, as the World Exposition is coming, economic in Shanghai is going to greatly boom, so hope to open 1or 2 more stores outside the central Shanghai next year would be better. As the previous analysis we can see there are still some cities have the potential to run a IKEA retail store so IKEA could take a few cities into account such as Ha ngzhou, Tianjin, etc. 7. Foreign Market Entry Strategy Having done all the analysis about china’s market penetration, we are now facing the decision of which foreign market entry mode to use. Several factors need to be given full scrutiny before we choose from the grouping of entry modes. Internal factors are the deciding roles here in the strategy which should be considered with priority. They are mainly concerned with the firm itself. †¢ Ownership advantages It can be understood as asset-based advantages which include the firm’s resource ability, reputation, origin of country, potential of future growth and so on. Apparently, Ikea Group has both the tangible and intangible resources to enter Chinese market, even the brand name itself is a huge selling point. What the brand stands for are creative design, durability and functionality, and all of the three are not quite transferable, thus the transaction cost here is high, so we recommend joint venture as its entry mode further into Chinese market. †¢ Location How the furniture be shipped from A to B onto the shelf for display is important, since it has much to do with the cost of the business. Since Ikea has entered into china, most of the furniture is imported from Sweden.  Undoubtedly, this approach increases cost dramatically. Cooperate with local partner can help Ikea build good relationship with local suppliers. Further more, furniture manufacturing industry shows the tendency of transfer the production facilities to developing countries which offers relatively low labor cost, huge consuming market and stable political and economic environment (Capdevielle, Li & Nogal 2007) From this point of view, joint venture is a better choice which offer a great time and opportunity for Ikea boost its future plan of turning China into the supply center of in Asia. (Carpell 2006) †¢ Internationalization Experience & Global Strategy toward China According to Ikea website, up until August 2009, it had 267 stores and had trading service offic es in 26 countries and 28 distribution centers and 11 customer distribution centers in 16 countries. (http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB/about_ikea/facts_and_figures/index.html). Ikea opened its first store in China in 1998, and in the past 12 years it had up to 7 stores in mainland China, most of which are joint ventures. Shenyang Store is coming soon, planed to open in the middle of the year. Ikea expects to have 10 large stores up and running in China by 2010. (The China business review, 7-8, 2004) It strongly proves that Ikea has confidence and ambition in China. However, it is easier said than done. To accomplish its expectationï ¼Å'Ikea still got two more stores to construct. It should speed up in this plan. Considering this background, China’s market penetration can greatly reduce cost and risk. External factors should also be given careful consideration. They are basically having things to do with the overall target market environment. †¢ Social-cultural Factor When carry out the penetration plan, marketers should be cautious about China’s specific features, such as the diverse cultures which is bred by the vast territory, various kinds of business practice, different consuming philosophies, and all of these are quite difficult for foreigners to grasp on. In entering into a new market, the region size, rate of market and potential purchase power shall be the determinant parameters, so a local helper is needed. †¢ Political/ Economic Factor Before china entered WTO, government requires all foreign company to cooperate with local partner in order to help domestic enterprise to develop  their business and learn the advanced management skills [1]. Although the regulation had already been ended, not many firms shifted from joint venture to wholly owned store. Although the trend for future stores is wholly owned mode, it is still too soon to risk all the Ikea stores switch to this mode. From all the above, we strongly recommend the next few stores to open in the east part of China use the entry mode of joint venture to further expand its market, and strengthen its place in China. 8. Product/Service Mix Preparation Product and service are the essential elements in the development of company, the product of IKEA is designed by the purpose of simplifying, and the service believes the rule of do-it-yourself. However, with the special culture, economy and life style in China, IKEA should take some necessary change on its product, strategy, brand and service. 8.1 Product adaptation First, it is the endurance and practicability of product need to strengthen. Though IKEA has its own requirement and test on the quality of product, according to the latest research (Li 2009), it seems just aim at some special product, such as bedroom furniture, chair. Meanwhile, the equipment of kitchen class and bookcase are not as good as them. Thus, IKEA should pay attention to their entire product, every product needs to be test by certain standard. Second, IKEA has too much product, which makes the table of contents be also long. As there is too much choice for customers, it makes them nervous on how to choose the most suitable one. That is to say, IKEA needs to condense the table of product and makes it clear and simple, the customer would find the product they want first. 8.2 Product publicity IKEA used a lot of advertising in Europe and the United States, but there are so few in China and these ones are simple and bored, it makes large number of people know little about its product. On the other hand, the product of IKEA use environmental protection of materials and advanced ones, but most customers do not know them, because IKEA has few actions to explain it in China, while it is doing enough publicity in Europe. Therefore, IKEA should put more energy and time on advertising and publicity, such as television advertising, as there is a very large population watching TV. Moreover, it  is useful to support some event, for example, Sichuan Earthquake. Also it is important to make them interesting and attractive, it would give the design concept of DIY to the customers. 8.3 Product price IKEA is well known as good quality and cheap price because of its centralized purchasing and professional logistics, and it makes most people have ability to buy them. But in China, the price is higher than others, this makes most customers just look them. So there are some useful ways help IKEA reduce the high price. First, it is necessary to build a new production base in China, as now the production base is in Malaysia, which provides the product to the Asia. This way would avoid the import tariff, because the import tariff in China is a big one. Second, it also helps IKEA reduce the transport costs, whether transport by air or by ship, the cost is not a small number. Third, there are many small finished factories in China, IKEA should take more material from them, not in overseas. What is more, IKEA should give them a certain size of order, this helps make the price lower for competition. 8.4 New product development As it is known that there is a too lager population in China, it makes the house of China be smaller than other countries, it means that there are limited spacing for putting the furniture. Thus, a good idea for IKEA is to develop the new product that can be folded, it saves the space for customers, and this also makes the customers would buy more products due to it needs little space. 8.5 Market expansion In 1998, IKEA came into the Chinese market first in Shanghai, from then to now, it has pasted twelve years, but the number of IKEA place in China is only 7, meanwhile, it has 240 ones in the world. From the data, you can know the speed of its development in China is so slow. It loses much choice. Hence, IKEA should build many new shopping places in the important cities, such as the southeast of China, because the cities in this area develop fast and the consumption capacity of customers is suitable for IKEA. 8.6 Service Mix The service in Europe is do-it-yourself, but the situation is not the same in  China, most people in China do not have cars, so customers need IKEA provide home delivery service, IKEA do it, but the charge of it is high. For example, a customer buys a small chair of 79 yuan, but the cost for delivering is 60 yuan, it is not worth for customers. Therefore, IKEA should reduce the rate of delivering charge, and it is effective to provide the installation for free, as almost all of the competitors support the free installation. Another strategy is using some staffs to introduce and recommend the product for customers, because Chinese people is different from others, they like someone talking the information to them, sometimes they also accept the staffs’ selection on the product. 9. Conclusion To sum up, IKEA has become a successful international company with a wide range of products, and its global experience and unique strategy has led it occupy the large market share. But there are also some problems blocking its development in other countries because of the different culture, economy and lifestyle. So it is time for IKEA to carry out the new strategy on balancing its brand, product, service and management in order to expand new market, and take more advantages in the competition.

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