Internet banking Essay

Internet is rapidly turning out to be a tool of world wide communication. The increasing use of Internet earlier promoted producers and entrepreneurs to sell their products online. It has also become an important source of information and knowledge. Due to this, many banking and finance organizations have come up with the idea of Internet banking or online banking. What is Internet Banking Internet banking can be defined as a facility provided by banking and financial institutions, that enable the user to execute bank related transactions through Internet. The biggest advantage of Internet banking is that people can expend the services sitting at home, to transact business. Due to which, the account holder does not have to personally visit the bank. With the help of Internet banking many transactions can be executed by the account holder. When small transactions like balance inquiry, record of recent transaction, etc. are to be processed, the Internet banking facility proves to be very handy. The concept of Internet banking has thus become a revolution in the field of banking and finance. Brief History of Internet Banking The concept of Internet banking has been simultaneously evolving with the development of the world wide web. Programmers working on banking data bases came up with ideas for online banking transactions, some time during the 1980s. The creative process of development of these services were probably sparked off after many companies started the concept of online shopping. The online shopping promoted the use of credit cards through Internet. Many banking organizations had already started creating data ware housing facilities to ease their working staffs. The development of these databases were widely used during the development of ATM’s. Sometime in 1980s, banking and finance organizations in Europe and United States started suggestive researches and programming experiments on the concept of ‘home banking’. Initially in the 80’s when computers and Internet were not so well-developed, ‘home banking’ basically made use of fax machines and telephones to facilitate their customers. The widespread of Internet and programming facilities created further opportunities for development of home banking. In 1983, the Nottingham Building Society, commonly abbreviated and referred to as the NBS, launched the first Internet banking service in United Kingdom. This service formed the basis for most of the Internet banking facilities that followed. This facility was not very well-developed and restricted the number of transactions and functions that account holders could execute. The facility introduced by Nottingham Building Society is said to have been derived from a system known as Prestel, that is deployed by the postal service department of United Kingdom. The first online banking service in United States was introduced, in October 1994. The service was developed by Stanford Federal Credit Union, which is a financial institution. The online banking services are becoming more and more prevalent due to the well-developed systems. Though there are pros and cons of electronic cash, it has become a revolution that is enhancing the banking sector. Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/history-of-internet-banking.html

Conformity and anarchy and through unusual language Essay

â€Å"Fight Club† by Chuck Palahniuk explores the theme of masculinity through clever characterisation, exploration of conformity and anarchy and through unusual language.  The traditional role of man was as the head of the family unit. Looking after and providing for his wife and children in the hunter-gatherer role. What if a man has no wife and children? What is his role? What if the man comes from a broken family where he had no father? How is he supposed to live a good male life if he has no good example to follow? These are some of the issues that Chuck Palahniuk confronts on the theme of masculinity in â€Å"Fight Club†. In this essay I will explore the author’s use of characterisation, conformity, anarchy and interesting and unusual language in support of this main theme. The characterisation of the main figure is executed particularly well. The characters of Joe and Tyler are cleverly interwoven throughout the novel until the reader’s realisation that they are both actually the same person. There are a lot of hints in the novel, which suggest this up until it is actually revealed. Several times the narrator, Joe, says,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I know this because Tyler knows this.†Ã‚  This could be taken as meaning that they are very close friends and tell each other everything or that they are both the same person. The author also refers to the idea of multiple personalities in, â€Å"If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?†Ã‚  I think that this illustrates the concept that Joe is a chronic insomniac and changes personality in his sleep.  There are many similarities between Joe and Tyler up until we discover they are the same person. They both love Marla but only Tyler sleeps with her. This provides comic moments when we realise that all through the book Marla has been talking to Joe as her lover but Joe has been talking to her as his friend’s girlfriend. Both Joe and Tyler end up looking like each other, â€Å"Tyler and I were looking more and more like Identical Twins. Both of us had punched-out cheekbones, and our skin had lost its memory, and forgot where to slide back after we were hit.† Tyler starts off looking beautiful, an idyllic version of Joe, he is what Joe wishes he could be. This is indicated in  Ã¢â‚¬Å"perfectly handsome and an angel in his everything-blond way.† He is smart, funny, and knows all of the interesting facts that Joe wishes he knew, like how to break security locks and make C4 explosives. Joe, after discovering how boring his life is asks,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Deliver me Tyler from being perfect and complete†,  In my opinion Tyler starts as an angelic, saviour figure and turns into an evil alter ego once Joe finds out the truth. The key â€Å"Fight Club† theme of masculinity is explored by examining the notions of, conformity and Anarchy. The theme of conformity and non-conformity is examined by the contrast between Joe’s boss and Tyler. Joe’s boss who wears a different tie for each day of the week plays the stereotypical male role. He contrasts directly with Tyler who squats in a house in the warehouse district, urinates in tomato soup at a hotel and splices single frames of pornography into family movies. He is the ultimate non-conformist. This is the exact opposite of  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Mister Boss with his midlife spread and family photo on his desk and his dreams about early retirement and winters spent at a trailer-park hookup in some Arizona desert.† I believe this represents the American Dream and conformity contrasted against Tyler’s vision of anarchy and chaos in a non-conformist nightmare. The language choice in this seems dismissive of the boss’ dream. â€Å"Some† suggests that the dream is irrelevant. The boss also represents Joe’s idea of his father. Joe believes that  Ã¢â‚¬Å"If you’re male, and you’re Christian and living in America, your father is your model for god. And sometimes you find your father in your career.†

Looking For Alaska Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Looking For Alaska - Research Paper Example In the novel, Looking for Alaska by John Green, a girl named Alaska mysteriously dies, and her friends must go on a  journey to figure out what exactly happened to her. Not only do the readers follow them on their journey, but they are also given a look into the suffering of Alaska and her own quest to find the end to hers. Although many people suffer and may consider suicide as their solution. It is essential that they find their own way to end their suffering and escape the Labyrinth, and to do so they need to realize that life has so much to offer, people are there to help them, and with hard work anything is possible. Although many people suffer and may consider suicide as their solution, it is vital that they find their own way to end their suffering and escape the Labyrinth, and to do, so they need to realize life has so much to offer, people are there to help them, and with hard work anything is possible. John Green was born in 1977, in Alabama. John Green is inspired by aut hors like Laurie Halse Anderson and Walter Dean Myers. He began writing his writing career while working at Booklist. In the book looking for Alaska, john green uses his native birth place as the setting for the novel. John Green grew-up in Orlando Florida and attended Kenyon College. In 2007, John and his brother Hank made a pact to cease communication  through texting and only communicate via YouTube video posts. They video posted each other every day. The two brothers named this Project brotherhood 2.0 (Nicholas, 2011). The decision to use YouTube to communicate to each other, inspired ‘nerd fighters’ an online community, who fight for intellectualism and try to reduce by large the level of suck worldwide. This attempt has received thousands of dollars through donations from various charities (Nerdfighters, 2012). We are all born with hope and desire to fulfill and have a purpose in life. The finding of this purpose is beneficial to individuals. The effort to find this purpose is all left to an individual. Looking for Alaska is a story about finding that purpose in an individual’s life. Miles describes  the labyrinth suffering  as the greater perhaps in life and quotes from Francois Rabelais (Green, p.5). In looking for Alaska, John Green uses his characters to demonstrate the search for this purpose in life. He says, â€Å""Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. (...) You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how fearsome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present."(Green 30) The distractive lifestyles of the teenagers, dabbles in sex and drugs and the pranks, this is all an attempt to find their purpose in life. As one is trying to find their purpose in life, they meet obstacles and suffer  along the way. How  a  person  deals or perceives this suffering is notable as it will help how one tackles with them. The paper discusses the different answers that the characters in looking for Alaska give after searching themselves. Alaska’s last words were â€Å"how do I get out of this labyrinth of suffering?† this word taunted her classmates as well as those that she told. They all try to find an answer to this question. Throughout the book, this question is answered. To some they thought that the only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is through death. Miles and Alaska are out to find the

Ballet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ballet - Essay Example For instance in Swan Lake, an example of a classical ballet the choreography consists of movements that test and display the dancers’ skills in performing advanced ballet skills such as the pas de deux, multiple turns, extended balances and intricate footwork (128). Whereas classical ballet focuses more on the skills in technique execution by the dancers, romantic ballet gives greater emphasis on expressing emotions through dance, while still maintaining the execution of technique aspect (123). It is also relatively more recent that classical ballet, since aside from the increase in male dancers in the repertoire the themes in most romantic ballet gravitate around mythical stories or legends with fantastic or romantic elements (127). Also, romantic ballet productions are relatively more lavish compared to classical ballet, wherein not only do dancers need to be graceful and skilled, but are also required to be very expressive and have powerful acting abilities. One example of a ballet production that requires the female dancers to have all of these skills is Giselle. In the ballet’s choreography, the prima ballerina playing as Giselle as well as the other ballerinas must be skilled enough to maintain flexibility in performing both the roles of the light and dark swans, shifting from innocent to mature in each act (127). It is important to distinctly portray each role to make each scene and the whole production to be both credible and moving to viewers. This makes the dramatic quality of a romantic ballet such as Giselle distinct from classical ballet such as Swan Lake that focuses on technique execution and

The topic can be proposed by the writer Term Paper

The topic can be proposed by the writer - Term Paper Example However, in the contemporary market conditions, business affairs are highly complex in nature. There are many situations in the economy where few corporate firms in the industry possess extraordinary powers to manipulate the price and quantity supplied. These are situations when the resource apportion in the economy are not proficiently executed. The wastage of productive resources in the economy leads to social welfare dampening. Thus, for ensuring proper economic development in a nation, the economy must be guided by the Mixed Economic Principles. In such situations, the power and the antitrust practices of the private business organizations are controlled by the public authorities. This project would focus on the antitrust behavior of the famous multinational company of Microsoft in U.S. (Ross, â€Å"The Economic Theory of Agency: The Principal's Problem†). Monopoly Market In the theory of economics, a monopoly market structure is characterized with no competition in the ma rket. In this type of a market structure, there is only one seller in the market. On the other hand, the number of buyers in the industry is infinite. The single seller has the power to manipulate the market price of the product or service sold by him. The type of product or service sold by a monopoly seller in the market may be homogeneous or heterogeneous in nature. A monopoly seller is a profit maximizing agent in the industry. Figure 1: AR and MR Curve of a Monopoly Producer AR, MR Price or Average Revenue Curve (P or AR) Marginal Revenue Curve (MR) Quantity (Source: Authors Creation) The above diagram shows that the price or average revenue curve of a monopolist in the market is negatively sloped. The marginal revenue curve is also downward sloping for a monopolist. In the long run, a monopolist may enjoy normal (break-even) profit, supernormal profit or loss. A monopolist in the market discriminates among its consumers on the basis of the product prices charged to the customer s (Gravelle and Rees 145). Figure2: Price Discrimination (Source: Stole, â€Å"Price Discrimination and Imperfect Competition†) As shown in the above diagram, a monopolist may discriminate among its consumers on the basis of prices. In the above diagram, for the s=2 demand curve, the monopolist charges price p2 and it charges price p1 for the demand curve s=1. It may seem that a monopoly structure is a hypothetical market but by adopting special business strategies, a firm might become a natural monopolist in the industry. Figure 3: Natural Monopolist (Source: Tragakes 184) A single seller may grasp an entire share of market demand by taking the First Mover Advantage in business. By increasing the base of customers, the company may enjoy economies of scale in production. Scale economies in the long run would help the firm to minimize the average cost of production. In such a situation, it would be impossible for another firm to enter in the industry and sell products at such low average costs. Thus, a natural monopolist in the market enjoys scale in economies of production and prevents other firms from entering the industry. Figure 4: Welfare Loss in Monopoly (Source: Mankiw and Taylor 253) As stated in the above diagram, the efficient quantity of output is much more than the monopoly output threshold. On

The Dome of St. Peter's Basilica Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Dome of St. Peter's Basilica - Essay Example Peter’s towers 445 feet in the air from the floor to the very tip of the cross on that famous dome above and it was a tall building even by sixteenth century standards. â€Å"That dome is a revered part of the Roman skyline and it is an amazing architectural design all by itself. None other than Michelangelo himself designed the great dome and that famous Renaissance artist employed a double-shell design technique that was created by San Gallo. Even though Michelangelo was made the architect in charge of St. Peter’s in 1546, the completion of the masterpiece came long after his death.† (When In Rome, Visit St. Peters Basilica - A Vatican City Delight) Thus, it was Giacomo della Porta, one of his students, who went on to complete the work in 1590, following the death of the great master and the design plans of the brilliant architects have been modeled in other famous buildings of the world. â€Å"From distance one can clearly see the dome of St. Peter’s r ising above the nave and wide faà §ade, although Michelangelo’s dome, designed for a naveless church gradually recedes from view as one comes closer to the building.† (Moffett, 357) Therefore, the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica is a magnificent construction which has great historical and architectural value and this paper makes an analysis of the work of architecture to comprehend the historical facts as well as the factors that influenced its design, etc. The dome of St. Peter’s Basilica has been so well designed that the first two centuries since its construction found no cracks or other issues. In a reflective analysis of the architectural value of the dome, it becomes lucid that St. Peter’s Basilica served as a model for churches as well as government buildings and the dome of the church is its most magnificent construction. Significantly, the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica illustrates the relationship between politics and power and it is important to realize the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica as

Experimentation, Research and Consent (slp5C) Essay

Experimentation, Research and Consent (slp5C) - Essay Example They should agree on what and what should not happen to them. Research should as much as possible avoid any harm on the subjects while maximizing its benefits and minimizing any possible harms. A risk/benefit assessment should be carried out before the experiment can be conducted. Benefits may have to be foregone due to possible harms. Subjects should not be harmed no matter the benefits it may bring to others, for example, in the treatment of child disease where the subjects may not benefit directly from the research (McNeill, 1993). Justice should be accorded to the participants. Participation should be allowed for anyone who can benefit from the research and they should not be denied the benefits. Benefits should be distributed fairly according to individual contribution, merit, and role during the research. People should not be selected due to their compromised, availability and manipulated situations example prisoners, ethnic minorities, or patients. If public funds are involved, the benefits should go to all people and not only to those who can afford them (McNeill,

Prescription Medication abuse increase in the last 10 yrs Research Paper

Prescription Medication abuse increase in the last 10 yrs - Research Paper Example ing all types of strategies to sell their products and they are not bothering about whether the sold medications are used for positive or negative purposes. This paper briefly analyses the prescription medication abuse with the help of all the independent variables mentioned above. â€Å"In the United States, physicians are faced with two opposing dilemmas in the treatment of pain – the potential for drug abuse and diversion, and the possible under treatment of pain. While controlled prescription drugs such as narcotic analgesics, anxiolytics, antidepressants, stimulants, and sedative-hypnotics, play a legitimate role in managing chronic pain and other conditions, the illicit use of prescribed medicines is increasing at epidemic proportions† (Manchikanti, MD, 2006, p.335). Prescription medication abuse is one of the largest segments of drug addiction in United States and it is second only to the marijuana abuse. It is difficult to collect the statistics of prescription medication abuse because of the difficulty in identifying whether the medication is used for curing the diseases or misused for getting some temporary psychological thrill or pleasure. The drug abusers often submit the prescriptions of the doctors to obtain medicines prescribed for some chronic diseases like psychoses. Most of the narcotic medicines are used for changing the moods of the psychologically disordered persons which may have side effects. The drug abusers often give false details to force the doctor to prescribe the narcotic medicines or pain killers which contain potentially harmful ingredients. â€Å"Cocaine (35 percent), marijuana (34%), and methamphetamine (17%) accounted for the substantial majority of Los Angeles-based illicit drug items analyzed and recorded by the National Forensic Laboratory Information System (NFLIS) for January–June 2008† (NIDA, 2009, p.49) ‘Misuse of a medicine can be referred as incorrect use of a medication by patients, who may use a drug for a

William Blake, Romanticism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

William Blake, Romanticism - Essay Example Firstly, the poem â€Å"The Marriage of Heaven and Hell† somehow speaks of the goodness in all things even in those which people consider as negative. In the poem, the capital sins are regarded by Blake as good things to God: pride is glory, lust is bounty, wrath is wisdom, and nakedness if the work of God. This then somehow creates a pattern where the succeeding lines illustrate the same polarities between evil and good which are actually the same. Thus, following from the line â€Å"Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps†1, which means that things are not what they seem, it simply means that all lines in the poem are lines of contradictions too2.Therefore, following through from the line â€Å"Joys impregnate, Sorrows bring forth†3, one can conclude that joys will give people something negative and that sorrows will bring people something opposite too. This means that joys impregnate or somehow make someone pregnant, which is basically a bad thing if two people are not married yet. On the other hand, when someone says â€Å"Sorrows bring forth,† it means that perhaps sorrow brings someone â€Å"forth† or forward. This means that such a negative thing like sorrow may always be instrumental in advancing someone. Perhaps, it is because one learns much from sorrow as much as he learns from happiness. The meaning of the line â€Å"Joys impregnate, Sorrows bring forth† (Blake) is also evident in the historical context in which Blake’s â€Å"The Marriage of Heaven and Hell† was written. In fact, William Blake was born during a time when the Bible was glorified4. It was at that time that Blake started pointing out the inaccuracies and errors in the Bible in order to somehow educate the people and make them believe that the Bible was actually a mere creation of man. This was Blake’s protest against organized religion. Thus Blake, through his â€Å"The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,† was able to instill in his readers

World of Global and Knowledge Economies Literature review

World of Global and Knowledge Economies - Literature review Example As the report declares the classical perspective is also more relevant to the current knowledge based economy that the improvement in the performance of the employees and resultantly that of the organization depends upon how knowledgeable the employees are. This is also relevant because knowledge based economy concepts advocate that in order to reduce the impact of diminishing returns on the capital, it is important that new ways of doing things are created. Classical perspectives therefore is relevant in the sense allow knowledge based economies to gain access to the more qualified and high performing employees. According to the paper findings organic perspective is critical in the sense that it advocates the formation of networks and hubs where people work in an informal manner. Knowledge based economies are also based upon the informal networking of the individuals through digitization which has been made possible with the help of globalization. What is also critical to note that organic perspective directly asserts the impression that the knowledge workers need not be concentrated in one place? Thus the current derive in digitization and globalization actually allowed the organizations to harness the power of the competencies of their employees while transcending the traditional borders. Organic perspective is significantly more critical due to the fact that it focuses on the understanding the needs of the employees and allow the emergence of concepts like group leadership.

Letter from Birmingham Jail Essay Example for Free

Letter from Birmingham Jail Essay Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. introduces the â€Å"Letter From Birmingham Jail† by mentioning, â€Å"While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities ‘unwise and untimely’(para. 1). After he establishes why he is writing this letter he places the issue in context by stating, But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms(para. 1). Dr.  King knows what is at stake by indicating, I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what is happens in Birmingham injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere(para. 4). Dr. King verifies that he wants everyone to see why his brothers and sisters are demonstrating in Birmingham. He states this by saying, You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham but your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations(para. 5). The stance Dr. King took was that peaceful protest and marches were an outlet for his people to express their frustration. Dr. King says to his critics, There comes a day when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. The common ground Dr. King encourages is to do peaceful and nonviolent marches and protests. He details this in his letter by saying, You are quite right in calling for negotiation onviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue(para. 10). Dr. King promises that his direct action program is constructive, but nonviolent. In his letter he mentions this by saying, The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation(para. 11). Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ffers a resolution by saying, â€Å"†I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as integrationist or a civil rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother†¦Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with their scintillating beauty†(para. 47).

Recruitment and Retention of Volunteers: An Analysis

Recruitment and Retention of Volunteers: An Analysis This dissertation will look at the recruitment and retention of volunteers within St Lukes Hospice Charity Shops, based in London. Whilst some aspects will be similar to the recruitment and retention of paid employees, it is essential to understand the differences between the two groups of staff. The recruitment and retention of volunteers raises many of the same challenges as those involving paid workers, but the solutions may differ (Suff, 2008). However, Olga Aikin points out that the legal status of volunteers and the duties owed to them by employers are not necessarily clear. She believes that the ambiguity is caused by the term volunteer having no universal meaning. Aiken (2009) explains that at common law level the status is relatively simple. The status can be determined by asking the question did the parties have a binding contract? For an agreement to become a binding contract there has to be mutuality of obligations and an intention for the agreement to be legally binding. At common law the parties can agree that the agreement will not be legally binding (a so-called gentlemans agreement) (Aikin, 2009) Aiken goes on to clarify that it if often wrongly thought that a contract relating to employment must include monetary benefit, however this is not the case. For there to be a contract there must be mutuality of obligation, meaning that each party must receive some benefit, and be under some obligation. The individual must receive some consideration for his or her work. This consideration does not have to be money; it could include other benefits such as training or accommodation, however, mandatory training, or training to allow a volunteer to carry out their role is not excluded (Aikin, 2009). Due to this it is essential that volunteers do not receive benefits for their role. Whilst the paying of expenses is acceptable, St Lukes would be restricted in offering volunteers other benefits which fall outside of this. It is important to establish from the outset that the person is working in a voluntary capacity, to avoid the organisation facing problems further down the line, including possible claims for payment and other benefits related to employment. Formal volunteering is defined as unpaid voluntary work carried out with, or under the auspices of, an organisation., whilst informal volunteering is defined as unpaid or voluntary work carried out outside organisations, often at neighbourhood level, but outside the immediate family (Volunteer Development Agency, 2007). Phil Hope from the Cabinet Office (Association of Volunteer Managers, 2007) defines volunteering as: any non-compulsory activity which involves spending time, unpaid, doing something which is of benefit to others (excluding relatives), society or the environment The Volunteer Development Agency (2005) defines volunteering as The commitment of time and energy for the benefit of society and the community, the environment or individuals outside ones immediate family. It is undertaken freely and by choice, without concern for financial gain. The difference between paid staff and volunteers is often not clear. Kate Engles (Volunteering England, 2006) says that: Although both permanent staff and volunteers can be motivated by the cause of the organisation, for the former there is always the additional motivation of remuneration. So it is very important that volunteer managers are aware of the wider motivations that volunteers have, because that is why they are there. A paid employee will have a contract of employment and have clear workplace rights. A volunteer does not, so the relationship is based on reasonable expectations. It is important that the terminology in a volunteering agreement refers to role, and not job, description, for example, so that it is not inferred that the volunteer is a paid employee. Similarly, volunteers should only be reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses, as any subsistence or payment could be construed as a wage. One of the other major differences between volunteers and paid staff is in the recruitment process. When recruiting paid staff the process results in the most suitable person for the job being appointed. With volunteers however, the approach is often different, with the process being a lot more flexible, allowing the organisation to tailor roles to suit the individual. If an individual if unsuitable for the role for which they have applied, it is often possible to point them in the direction of an alternative department or role, for which the organisation would be able to use them. This is a tactic that St Lukes use, predominantly when individuals under the age of 18 apply to volunteer within the hospice setting. Engles continues to say that there are some requirements which help to differentiate between the two groups. These include the organisation having a volunteering policy which sets out how the volunteering arrangement should work in practice, covering recruitment, supervision, training and development and reimbursement of expenses. WRVS also recommends having good-practice policies in place to manage the volunteer workforce, mirroring the approach of policies which are in place for permanent staff. This should include documentation which clearly sets out expectations for both volunteers and the organisation about what can be expected from volunteering. (Volunteering England, 2006) This was something that was implemented in 2008 at St Lukes Hospice, called a Statement of Mutual Expectation. The Statement of Mutual Expectation is a document which clearly states what is expected of volunteers whilst working at St Lukes, and what volunteers can expect from St Lukes whilst working for the organisation. It was drawn up in agreement with a volunteer focus group, to ensure that volunteers were in agreement and that the expectations were realistic from both parties. Suff (2008) believes that having the right person, in the right place, at the right time, is central to organisational performance. Recruitment is an essential activity for organisations as a whole, not just for the HR team, but also for line managers who have become increasingly involved in the selection process (CIPD, 2009). This principal does not just relate to the recruitment of paid employees, but to volunteers too. The volunteer recruitment process should reflect that of paid staff. Prior to recruiting for a position the CIPD recommends investing time to gather information relating to the role, including the roles purpose, the outputs required by the role holder and how it fits into the organisations structure. When considering the role it is also important to take in to account the skills and personal attributes needed to perform the role effectively (CIPD, 2009). This should be the first step in the recruitment process. This should also include looking at how volunteers will be supported and managed whilst working with the organisation. By including both paid staff and current volunteers in the planning process, it ensures that everyone has an input and understands the volunteers involvement. By involving senior management and board members in any planning, this ensures that the organisation has commitment at strategic level. The National Centre for Volunteering agrees that successful recruitment is heavily dependent upon organisations identifying what is needed from potential volunteers by understanding the specific roles, and recruiting to them (McCurley and Lynch, 1998). McCurley and Lynch (1998) found that there is evidence that shows potential volunteers are attracted to the type of tasks or the nature of the role when being recruited to an organisation. It is therefore important that these are in place before the recruitment process starts. As well as being attracted to the roles offered, each volunteer has a reason for wanting to give their time for free. By identifying these motivations, the organisation will be able to match the needs of the volunteer with the needs of the organisation. Motivation factors include a commitment to the organisation. Within a local Hospice this may be that a friend or relative has received care, meeting people and socialising, gaining skills, or utilising existing skills (Volunteering England, 2006). The 2008 Institute for Volunteering Research paper Young people help out: Volunteering and giving among young people explain that the volunteering agenda believes young people volunteering has a positive impact, including increasing skills and employability, enhancing social cohesion, integrating young people in to society and reducing crime and anti social behaviour. Once the role has been planned for, the organisation needs to generate interest from external individuals. This can be done by advertisements in newspapers, on commercial job boards and on websites, including the organisations (CIPD, 2009). Regional newspapers often offer free advertisement space to charities, which can benefit both the organisation and the publisher. CIPD believes that as the use of technology in recruitment increases, organisations are adapting, and creating databases or pools of ready candidates, who can be kept in reserve, for as and when positions in the organisation arise, without the need to re-advertise (CIPD, 2009). This is not an area that St Lukes have attempted, due to lack of technology within the organisation. Also, with so many voluntary positions in the organisation, the majority of people can be placed immediately. As well as the recruitment process identifying suitable individuals, it can also be used to allow candidates to find out more about the organisation. It is also used for the individual to assess the organisation, and decide whether it is the right environment for them to work. As the experience of all applicants impacts on their view of the organisation, it is vital that each stage of the recruitment process is managed effectively and to the best of the organisations ability (CIPD, 2009). This is particularly important in an organisation such as St Lukes Hospice, who are community based, and rely heavily on word of mouth for recruitment and support. WRVS uses a variety of methods to attract potential volunteers. These include local media, attendance at events, local recruitment campaigns and word of mouth. One consideration with word-of-mouth approaches is that there could be an impact on diversity if people of similar backgrounds are coming forward, so we balance that method with other promotional activities, head of people volunteering at WRVS Chris Dobson says The CIPD Recruitment, Retention and Turnover Annual Survey 2009 found that the number of voluntary, community and not-for-profit organisations experiencing difficulty in recruiting for one or more category of vacancy in 2009 has decreased, compared to the 2008 figure, from 82% to 79%. However, the same report found that organisations with fewer than 250 employees are increasingly finding difficulty in recruiting for one or more category of vacancy in 2009 at 83%, up from 80%. The previous year CIPD also believe that effective recruitment is crucial to organisations for successful day to day running, and that it should not only be carried out to fulfil current needs, but should consider future needs, which will impact on the organisations resourcing (CIPD, 2009). However, in such a small organisation, the luxury of future planning is not always possible. With so many volunteer roles needing filling, planning for the future is not a priority. For recruitment to be effective, it is essential that there needs to be some understanding on where potential volunteers would look for current opportunities. Volunteer Development Scotland (VDS) research (2006) shows that 69% of existing volunteers became involved in volunteering through being asked to help. VDS however found that from the group of people asked, comprising of existing volunteers and non volunteers that the most popular places people believed they would look include the library, internet, direct to the organisation which they are interested in, a volunteer centre, or by speaking to their family and friends. These findings differ from the reality. Organisations can use a variety of methods to recruit volunteers. One of these is promoting itself to potential volunteers. Ways of doing this include informal methods, such as word of mouth by existing volunteers, as well as more formal methods, such as advertising. Word of mouth should not be under estimated. In a community charity it is a very powerful tool. Danson (2003) found that those who did not have access to these networks would become excluded from volunteering. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“However, the socially excludedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ are the least well informed about volunteering and the least networked into existing volunteers (Danson, 2003). For young people, aged 16 24 years, word of mouth was the most popular route in to volunteering (Institute for Volunteering Research, 2008). Institute for Volunteering Research (Gaskin, 2003) conducted research, using volunteers and non volunteers, and found that recruitment messages can be targeted to particular groups of people through advertising. What Gaskin was demonstrating, was that for a modern image of volunteering, organisations should use innovative media, emphasising the benefits of volunteering. For an outreach approach, organisations should be using talks, road shows and presence at public events, which could be incorporated with fundraising events. Lastly, for maximising word of mouth recruitment organisations should be encouraging current volunteers to act as ambassadors for volunteering within the organisation. Baird (2005) has found that often, non-volunteers have little knowledge of the activities undertaken by volunteers, or the number of hours and commitment which would be required of them to join an organisation. Baird also found that potential volunteers like to know how their time can make a difference to others, the organisation, or the environment and what they themselves could gain from volunteering. Whilst some volunteers like to know what they gain personally, this would also depend on their motivation for volunteering, as mentioned by Volunteering England. It is therefore important when planning and designing the volunteer role, to include information such as amount of time involved and any ongoing commitment requirements. It is vital to remember that volunteers are an important, if not invaluable resource for many organisations, and their recruitment and retention needs to be treated with as much care and detail as that of paid employees. Whilst motivational factors may differ between paid employees and volunteers, many aspects of people management remain the same. Volunteering is a major activity in the UK, with the  governments citizenship survey (2007) identifying that three-quarters (73%) of all adults in England and Wales undertook some form of volunteering in the previous 12 months, with almost half (48%) of adults surveyed claiming to do voluntary work on a regular basis, at least once a month (Suff, 2008). However, the extent to which volunteers are used within organisations varies considerably, ranging from organisations who solely depend on unpaid staff, to organisations who have minimal volunteer involvement. The Institute for volunteering Research (2008) found that in the previous year, 59% of organisations surveyed had experienced some problems with recruiting enough volunteers, with a similar proportion (57%) reporting difficulties in recruiting volunteers with the skills their organisation required. Kate Engles, Policy and Information Officer at Volunteering England, says that there is a range of support available for charities trying to attract volunteers, including volunteer centres, who offer advice to organisations on working with volunteers. They also advertise organisations volunteering opportunities to the local community. However, this is an approach that St Lukes have previously tried, using volunteer centres in Harrow and Brent, with little success. Chris Dobson, head of people volunteering at WRVS explains the demographic changes since the formation of WRVS 70 years ago (Volunteering England, 2009): Since WRVS was formed 70 years ago, peoples lifestyles have changed significantly. For example, at first there was a big group of women who did not work, but today most women do work and so do not necessarily have the free time to volunteer. This means we have to work a bit harder and be a bit more creative in how we attract potential volunteers. St Mungos, a homeless charity based in London, use a range of approaches to promote volunteering opportunities, including free advertising in London newspapers. This is an approach that St Lukes have tried in the past; however this was not very successful in terms of recruiting volunteers but did provide free press coverage to a large reader group. (Volunteering England, 2009) St Mungos is also registered with several national volunteering databases, as well as having forged links with University College London and London Metropolitan University, due to the universities course provision relating to the work done by St Mungos. St Lukes work closely with Thames Valley University, by providing accredited modules in Palliative Care as part of their degree programme. However, students who spend time at St Lukes as part of the module do not volunteer for the charity whilst training to become specialist palliative care nurses. They carry out supervised placements within the hospice, but no students have so far extended their time to volunteering outside of the module. When recruiting volunteers for the organisation it is important to understand diversity and the role which it should play. Diversity includes physical and non physical differences, with a number of personal characteristics covered by discrimination law. These give people protection against being treated unfairly, with the protected characteristics including age, race, disability, sex, religion and belief and sexual orientation. Diversity in volunteering should mean that people from diverse backgrounds, with diverse skills, can volunteer, regardless of any of these characteristics (CIPD, 2010). There are many compelling reasons to attract a diverse mix of volunteers, such as reflecting the community or client group, encouraging inclusion and encouraging new skills and backgrounds into the organisation, because there is greater flexibility in the recruitment process for volunteers, there is greater scope to encourage greater diversity. Kate Engles (Volunteering England, 2009) observes. The Institute for volunteering Researchs 2008 study found that more than half of participating organisations (56%) had experienced problems recruiting volunteers from a wide range of social and community backgrounds. Volunteer Development Agency (2005) states that when talking about a diverse organisation, it is one that represents the community that it is in. In an area as diverse as Harrow and Brent, this is a particularly relevant challenge, and one that needs to be overcome to ensure the future of volunteers within the hospice. Over the past 5 years WRVS has worked to implement a diversity strategy. This is in an attempt to enhance its reputation and image, resulting in widening its potential recruitment pool. The reason for WRVS implementing this was that it views volunteers as the public face of the organisation, and believes that if they reflect todays diverse society, then individuals will more easily identify with it (Volunteering England, 2009). For St Lukes, this is also an influencing factor, along with the need to diversify to continue to attract volunteers from the local community. The CIPD give several examples of why an organisation would want to become more diverse. To be competitive, everyone within the organisation needs to make their best contribution. By employing a diverse workforce, this allows for a more diverse skills mix. A diverse workforce can help in market competitiveness, opening up new market opportunities, increasing market share or expanding an organisations customer base. It can benefit the organisation by brining fresh ideas and perspectives from people with different experiences and backgrounds. It can also help to ensure that the services the organisation offers are relevant to the community (Volunteer Development Agency, 2005). To implement a diversity strategy within an organisation, it needs to start with buy in from senior management, and include changes in workplace behaviour, communication and training (CIPD, 2010). CIPD Recruitment, Retention and Turnover Annual Survey 2009 found that 94% of voluntary, community or not for profit organisations surveyed monitored recruitment to gain information on gender, ethnic origin, age and disability and 70% train interviewers to understand what diversity is and the impact on stereotypes. The benefits of having a diverse workforce are also highlighted in the Institute for Volunteering research paper Regular and occasional volunteers: How and why they help out (2008). The report found that although there are no significant differences between regular and occasional volunteers when it comes to gender or ethnicity, the age of the volunteer can make a difference. Volunteers aged 25 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 44 years old and more likely to be occasional volunteers, whilst those aged over 65 are more likely to commit to regular volunteering opportunities. Retention is the process in which employees are encouraged, through various means, to remain working for the organisation. This can be ongoing, or until the completion of the project. Employee retention is beneficial for both the organisation and the individual, and it is seen as the responsibility of the employer to ensure that the employee stays working for the organisation by using compensation, environment, support, growth and relationship. (CIPD, 2010) Retention of volunteers is just as important as the recruitment. Previous literature has cited negative experiences within organisations as well as personal factors, as reasons why people leave volunteering. Examples include lack of relevant training, poor supervision within the role and uninteresting duties (Alexander, 2000). Other factors include feelings of being overburdened and undervalued (Locke, Ellis Davis-Smith, 2003). Whilst it is not a fail safe way of ensuring high retention figures, there are many processes in place within the Shops Company which work towards addressing these issues. All volunteers are issued with a manual when commencing their role, which needs completing in agreement with the shop manager. Volunteers have set roles within the shops, and have regular parties to show appreciation for their hard work and commitment, along with birthday cards set as a sign of thanks. A thorough induction programme is also thought to be essential, to make volunteers feel comfortable, welcome and able to carry out their role with confidence. It should include an introduction to the organisation, including the organisations ethos and how they can personally contribute as a member of the volunteer team, an introduction to staff and volunteers with whom they will be working, an introduction to their new role, and also cover legislation, including health and safety (Help the Hospices, 2004). Beugen (in Recruitment and Retention of Volunteers, 2007) found that it is important to recognise that the needs and motivations of volunteers change over their time volunteering for an organisation. He believes that volunteers progress through a motivation life cycle, much the same as paid employees in any organisation. The first stage of Beugens life cycle of volunteers is the exploratory stage. This is when the new volunteers are still exploring the possibilities of being a volunteer, and trying out their new role within the organisation. At this stage Beugen believes that it is important to give reassurance to the volunteer, to find out their expectations and to discuss any uncertainties that they may have. The second stage of the life cycle is the period where volunteers are developing themselves and their role. They do this by analysing what they are doing and improving on their performance. Support for the volunteer doesnt need to be as intensive as the first stage during stage two, however it is still important to maintain contact with and encourage the volunteer. (Recruitment and Retention of Volunteers, 2007) Ongoing training is important during the second stage to allow for continual development. Beugen believes that this helps to create a sense of commitment to the organisation, resulting in higher retention rates. He also thinks that it is also important to recognise volunteers achievements and to acknowledge the value of their contribution to the organisation. Recognition can be formal (e.g. certificates, long service awards) or informal (e.g. birthday cards, cakes). The final stage of Beugens life cycle is maturity. This is where the volunteer is ready to share their skills and knowledge, and to support and lead other volunteers. In an organisation with a lot of volunteers, this stage of the life cycle is important, as it allows established volunteers to share their experiences and knowledge to newer volunteers, and to possibly give a different perspective on the role than that of a paid member of staff. By involving existing volunteers in this knowledge sharing it is preventing them from losing interest and motivation. Beugen points out that it is important to recognise that total retention isnt necessarily a good thing. He believes that once a volunteer has gained new skills and interests they may be ready to move on to another organisation. This may not be necessary if the organisation is large enough to have a range of roles to keep the volunteer motivated and interested. Holmes (in Recruitment and Retention of Volunteers, 2007) comments that the recruitment and retention procedures advised by many organisations are over-formal and similar to the personnel practices for paid staff. Despite this formal approach having advantages to both managers and volunteers in its structured approach research has found that volunteers often find this approach off-putting (Gaskin, 2003; Holmes, 2004). The Institute for volunteering Research (2003) asked volunteers what factors contribute to a satisfying and enduring volunteering experience in order to help organisations recruit and retain. IVR found that what puts volunteers off is feeling used, not appreciated, not consulted and not accommodated. They found that volunteers want to feel welcome, secure, respected, informed, well used and well managed. Since they do not have the incentive of financial gain, rewards must be supplied in other ways. Kate Engles (Volunteering England, 2009) comments: Many volunteer-involving organisations use volunteers Week in June to give awards or celebrate their volunteers by an outing or picnic, for example. Saying thank you costs nothing and goes a long way. Birthday cards or small gifts can also have a lot of meaning for the recipient. Birthday cards for all volunteers are sent annually, with tea parties held during volunteers week in June as recognition of the volunteer teams extensive work at St Lukes. At St Mungos, the belief if that if volunteers can see that they are making a difference within the charity, and that they are working for a professional organisation then this will  help boost retention. This is done by integrating volunteers in to the Mungos family, by making them feel like a part of the permanent workforce (Volunteering England, 2009). Similarly to the integration of volunteers at St Mungos, St Lukes have invested time in altering its culture. Historically, within St Lukes, volunteers and paid staff have been treated very differently, with separate inductions, handbooks, social events etc. However, since 2007 work has been carried out at St Lukes, to establish a less them and us culture. This work started with the setting up of several focus groups, to enable volunteers to have more input in to the organisation. Yet, since this work in 2007, retention rates have not improved. Approximately half of the organisations surveyed in the Volunteer Development Agency 2009 survey said that during the first quarter of 2009 the number of people applying to volunteering within their organisation had stayed the same, with 39% or organisations seeing an increase. The most common reason for an increase in applicants was that people wanted to increase their employability skills to aid finding paid work. The most common reason for decreases in volunteer applications because people had less time to come forward for volunteering. The organisations who stated that they saw an increase in volunteer application in the first quarter of 2009 were asked to clarify the % increase that they had seen compared to the same period in 2008. 59% said that they had seen an increase of 1-25% and 27% had seen a 26-50% increase. Looking towards the future, the organisations surveyed predicted that the major challenges facing them over the coming 6 months were related to funding / limited resources and the need to adapt to changing motivations / expectations of volunteers. 90% of the organisations who responded to this survey were from the Voluntary and Community sector. The remaining 10% were split between organisations with a remit in church / faith, sports and social enterprise. The largest had 1080 volunteers. Although extremely difficult the quantity, the perceived monetary worth of one hour of volunteers time to the organisations surveyed average out at  £9.24, which ranged from  £0- £30. With over 700 volunteers, it is estimated that St Lukes saves in excess of over  £1,000,000 per annum. Participating organisations are quoted as saying à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Volunteers at present are needing greater flexibility, this is ok to a point but does cause our organisation problems. Volunteers are not committing themselves for long periods any more, in the past the average duration for volunteers was 2-3 years, now that is down to 6-12 months (Volunteer Development Agency, 2009). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The majority of our volunteers are women and to date a few of them were unavailable to volunteer because they have had to look for paid work when their husbands became unemployed. This trend may increase (Volunteer Development Agency, 2009). In the report Volunteering in UK Hospices: looking to the future Smith, J (2004) estimates that each Hospice volunteer contributes approximately  £1,500 a year worth of work, using nearly  £200 of management time. Using this calculation it becomes clear how invaluable Hospice volunteers are, as the Shops operation would not be able to operate to such an extensive profit without them. With plans for the Hospice to continue expanding, and the opening of more shops in the local area, it is essential that the Hospice has a strategy in place to ensure that there is a constant supply of volunteers joining the workforce to allow this to happen. As well as looking at new ways of recruiting volunteers, it is vital that the Hospice acknowledges the need to retain the volunteers is currently utilises, as they have a wealth of knowledge. As well as knowledge, Smith, J (2004) identified that volunteer commitment increases with length of service. Statistics released by Volunteering England (2009) show that demand for volunteer placements in the 6 months prior to the report (March à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" September 2009) increased in 86% of volunteer placement centres. A recent survey by Howard Lake (2009) for Institute of Fundraising found that Hospices were bucking the economic gloom. Lake found that people in the South East of England were still volunteering, and believes this to Runaway Children: Causes and Strategies for Protection Runaway Children: Causes and Strategies for Protection Abstract Surprisingly there is less knowledge to our public of the significance of runaway children and their problems particularly in less developed Asian countries which include Pakistan. A general statistics collected by the police department which is not an exact estimate and this wrong data might lead to this problem being intense. Subsequently, with elapsing time this problem is becoming more serious due to deteriorating financial and political condition and coming into consideration of the government. Therefore the government of Punjab with help of UNICEF on 17 March 2003 at Lahore initiated an organization named (CPWB) Child Protection and Welfare Bureau. This is the most renowned organization operating presently in Pakistan dealing with the problems of runaway children quite efficiently with foreign helps on a large scale. It is aimed for the recovery, rescue, and rehabilitation of poor and destitute children involved in abuse, beggary, burglary, neglected and exploitation by adults. A number of institution of CP and WP are being operated in major cities of Pakistan which include 2 branches in Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan ad Faisalabad. Acknowledgements With the name of ALLAH ALMIGHTY we were able to finish our research paper. This research was conducted with the support of the organization named CHILD PROTECTION AND WELFARE BUREAU. We greatly thank the staff members of CP WB for the cooperation. Special thanks is placed to â€Å" Mr. Roa Khalil Ahmad† the â€Å"Assistant Director† for guiding us throughout our visit to the Bureau and arranging a productive interview with â€Å"Muhammad Amin Malik† the â€Å"Child Protection Officer† of the bureau. Responsibility of the research paper remains with the group members which include â€Å"Furqan Fasahat†, â€Å"Kanza Munir†, â€Å"Sana Rizwan†, â€Å"Maliha Zahid† and â€Å"Amna Mahmood†. Problems of runaway children The term â€Å"Runaway Children† is referred to those kids or youngsters who have been found missing from home for about a few days. This is a voluntary act by the children who face miserable financial and family issues which cause them to leave their homes and become a part of public places. Due to lack of knowledge and understanding the concept or idea of lost and missing children is less acknowledged among people of Pakistan, although it is a serious issue which is considerably growing with time. In Pakistan there is less documentation in the relevant department which lead to lack of essential information on this serious social issue. This has been under notice by UNICEF for a long period of time because this problem is quite serious and prevalent in Asian countries especially Pakistan being a less developed nation is a major victim of it. As the financial and political conditions of Pakistan are deteriorating with time this problem has come under notice by the Government of Pakistan from recent years and necessary steps have been taken at a large scale in order to deal with this problem. All the children are in growing process so it is natural that they are emotionally immature. In this developing age appropriate freedom for communication and proper space to express their emotions and views should be provided. When this lacks and no family support is provided a feeling of loneliness cause them to runaway. Runaway is regarded as a serious social issue. The children who leave their homes voluntarily face miserable domestic conditions which are at times intolerable. The experiences faced by these runaway children include neglect ion, physical and sexual abuse, parental disputes which gives a sense of insecurity, sibling rivalry, failure in studies or exams and the fear of parents. The first, foremost subtopics under consideration which are to be researched are the causes and circumstances which cause the young children to run away from their homes. This is assigned to Maliha Zahid. The second subtopic which needs to be discussed is the problems faced by children when they run away and this will be covered by M. Furqan Fasahat. The third domain which is important is the effects on the society and to be done by Amna Mahmood. Moreover, the NGOs are to be researched for this topic, and its role played in the dealing with this issue in Lahore and is worked upon by Sana Rizwan. Lastly, the criminal activities in which these children get involved will be discussed by Kanza Munir. These above stated aspects will be worked upon by us in this research project. This topic is quite vast and more areas can also be covered to enhance the research which includes that do the children desire to go back home, or prefer living in other places. Furthermore, the research can be further enhanced by looking into the struggle of parents in finding their missing children. But these aspects are not to be discussed or researched. Literature Review The topic being focused in our research is â€Å"Runaway Children†. The forces and circumstances responsible for runaway, practice by children, and their rescue and protection against exploitation. According to Rana Asif Habib, convener of initiator, there are around 10000 children in Pakistan who live in the streets. A research conducted revealed that among the runaway children 66% are victim of violence at home, education center and work place. Only in Karachi, 30000 of these children are deprived of homely comfort and are exposed to drug and sexual abuse. In order to protect, the need of legislation on child right is stressed. At least in Punjab there is a Bill of 2004 for â€Å"Destitute and Neglected Children Protection†, whereas other provinces are without any legislation. Therefore shelters and rehabilitation centers must be set up and run by state, health services and education facilities must be provided to the destitute children. On the recommendation of the UNCRC committee drafted a bill which is further waiting for legislation regarding child rights.() The Pakistan Penal Code section 89 has made corporal punishment lawful which rather spoils the confidence of child to exist as a respectable person. It plays rather a negative role and discourages children from going to schools. Humaira Butt, SPARC School Project coordinator, said that there must be other ways besides corporal punishment, which can be effective in making discipline. It is revealed that because of corporal punishment 50% of the children runaway from schools and increases the rate of runaway children. The most common reason why children run away is divorce and parental disputes. The second danger is the pressure of â€Å"predators† present everywhere in our community, and its difficult to recognize them as they look like the â€Å"guy next door†. The next is the abduction of children by their non custodial parents for using them for their own selfish interest. Fourthy many children are abducted and sold for body parts due to the underground business in practice on internet. Young girls are in danger of being kidnapped and sold for prostitution. Many children run away because of abuse and neglect by their foster parents. In developed countries like USA an â€Å"Amber Alert† system in developed. â€Å"Police can act on tips to locate a missing child† which is encouraging. The article deals with an encouraging factor that the director of the film Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle, and the producer, Christian Colson, set up a charity trust Jai Ho for helping poor children in Mumbai, India. The NCRC bill does not enjoy redressal power and same is with NCCWD. Problems in budget allocation in the health and education sector for children also exits. The committee is against the tendency of corporal punishment giving to school going children, because it lowers the literacy rate further in Pakistan. Another tragedy is the non registration of 70% of children at the time of birth, and the bonded labor practices in many industries and informal sectors, affecting the poorest and most vulnerable children prohibiting slavery and all form of forced labor. Though Employment of Children Act 1991 exists yet the awareness is non existent so no one report to the police and judiciary. The Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) is deeply concerned that the minimum age of criminal responsibility continues to remain very low (7 years) therefore government should raise it to an internationally acceptable level. The number of children in prisons is high and number of juvenile courts, trained lawyers and p robation officers is insufficient. Faisal Kamal Pasha and Obaid Abrar Khan, Friday, September 11, 2009. The News It is told that Pirwadhai bus stand provide informations that mostly there runaway belongs to families facing object poverty, illiterate and orphans. These children get involved in drugs and some are addicts of sniffing an adhesive. The city police officer Rao Muhammad Iqbal said that these children are sent to the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau. The CP and WB have recovered 1251 children from March 2008 as reported. Edhi, the social worker of Edhi Foundation, arranged a bus from Karachi to Lahore to recruit children who were lost or had run away. Social worker says that Pakistan has a large population of runaway children or lost children, estimating their number at more than 20,000. Naveed Hasan Khan of Azad Foundation estimates that there are 13,000 to 15,000 in Karachi alone and the number in increasing. The UN, UNICEF estimates that there are 10,000 in Karachi. Due to poverty some parents are reluctant to receive their children from Edhi Homes, and also some children do not want to go back. The articles reviewed in this research give the factual detail regarding the certain barriers which contradict the final solution of the problems. Though the NGOs and social workers work with vigor to eradicate this evil yet the responsibility of the state is the first and foremost demand. Government institutions like Police and judiciary must play its adequate role required for addressing the cases with iron hands. Budget must be allocated to the centers of rehabilitation to let the victims get protection. Social values must be up held, especially at the domestic front. Parents and relatives must perform their duty towards small children. Instead of fighting on their own disputes the must be forced to safeguard the basic rights of their of springs. After all the parents are responsible for the upbringing of children, if they cannot take care of the tender hearts why at all they had the privilege to be called parents. Poverty must be lessened and education be made accessible to all i n order to stop children runaway. Research Questions Domain Questions: What are the causes and circumstances of running away? What are the problems faced by children who runaway? What role is played by the NGOs for supporting runaway children? What are the effects on the society of these runaway children? What kind of criminal activities take place? Subsidiary questions: What are the major reasons for running away from home and family Which is the most common age for running away Description of the abuses and strange experiences faced by children which caused them to runaway Where do the children go after running away? How do these children survive? How are they treated by the people around the outside world? What difficulties are faced by them? How do the bureau contact their parents? What type of background do these children have? How the NGO support them? How is the issue handled by the ngos? What is their behavior when they are rescued by the organization? What problems the organization face in handling such children? From where do these children come from? What are the social effects on the society of street children? Details of the main places in Lahore for runaway children. Description of the psyche of runaway children What are the measures and steps taken for these runaway children Who helps in promoting criminal activities? What incentives are provided to such children? Reasons for being involved in criminal activities? Which sector of the society is involved in exploiting these children? Research and methodology While the research was conducted, the first visit to the bureau was dated 26-03-2011 but it was not much productive. Only a meeting with the assistant director â€Å"Rao Khalil Ahmad† was possible in which the main topic of the research, goals and the purpose of visit was explained. In addition, a copy of interview question which were to be asked by the organization representative and the runaways, were handed over and the date and time of the interview was assigned by the assistant director. In exchange a handout of brief history, background and establishment of the bureau was given. The assigned date of the interview was 02-04-2011 and proved successful. The Child Protection Officer, â€Å"Muhammad Amin Malik† gave a well prepared and satisfactory interview which greatly helped in the research paper. The interview involved all the group members of which four were asking questions and one was busy in recording the movie of the interview. The answers of the interview qu estions were noted on the interview sheets provided by the instructor and were later signed and stamped by the CPO person. Second interview was with the runaway children in the bureau and while moving to the department of children the surroundings of the organization were keenly observed. Each child was asked similar questions, that is reason for running away, strange experiences if any, any involvement in criminal activities etc. Moreover, 20 questionnaires were prepared and filled in by the general public and the sample included students of LSE and family members. The interview with the CPO provided ample information relating to the organization, history and background of the problem plus the bureau. Different experiences quoted by affected children were separated related to each domain and helped in analyzing the topic well. The annual report of bureau provided exact facts, figures, dates and statistical information in detail of the organization. The answers of the filled questionnaires were decoded in Microsoft Excel and statistically analyzed in Stat graphics. Analysis of data and discussion Causes and reasons Children who run away from home are typically fueled by an overload of depression, anxiety, a sense of loneliness and alienation from their families and society. These kids often feel as if they have little support in times of trouble and no where to run when things get tough. Unfortunately for some children, parents realize too late theres a problem and the child ends up a runaway on the streets. Many children run away because their parents or legal guardian abuse and belittle or neglected them. (Anonymous, 2011). The precise number of runaway children in Lahore, or across the country is unknown. Estimates by organizations working with street children suggest there are at least 5,000 in the city at any one time, with the largest number based on Data Durbar or on the railway station. The charitable Eidhi foundation , which houses runaway children and attempts to unite them with parents estimates there are at least 10,000 such children in Karachi alone. By the end of 2003 there had be en 30% increase across the country in children leaving homes. They leave mostly due to domestic violence or acute social economic hardships (focus on runaway children, report, 2004 September, 8). The survey carried out on runaway children in which people where asked that would they leave there home if they have lack of resources and love, approximately 80% children disagreed on this, while 25% agree on this. According to the survey boys run away from home more than girls as boys are more aggressive and its difficult for them to control their anger . most of the children run in the age group between 10 to 16 and the main reason for running is parent dispute (appendix A and C).The first thing which comes in our mind is, who are runaway children and how can a child run from his home. What are the causes and reason due to which a child leaves his home? Home! the place which is known as heaven on earth. How this heaven becomes hell for that child? Are children forced to leave the home or they leave it by themselves. Children are innocent figure how they can be ready to face the difficulties of the evil world outside their home or the home they are leaving in is actually filled with evil people? Where these children go after running from their homes and what sort of difficulties they face. How does NGOs help them and rescue these sorts of children. In which sort of criminal activates these children usually get involved and what sort of impact these children have on society as these children are the future of our nation. To get answer of all these questions our group carried out a research on this topic as its the most important problem which are society is facing. The domain of my topic is causes and reasons due to which children leave their home. Nowadays( Renee, 2000) the reason for leaving home are far more tragic, things such as seriously eroded family condition where children feel neglected or unloved or they are abused. Children feel that if they dont run away they may end up dead. According to Dr Krishna Prasad, (2000) said all children are basically insecure, as they are emotionally immature. This immaturity is a part of the growing process. Each day they become more and more secure if the family is a close knit one with enough freedom for communication and emotional expression. Thus children runaway due to different reasons such as constant quarrels of parents ,causing insecurity and hatred in childs heart , if they feel unloved , fear of physical danger like father beating the child for wrong doing, fear that there would be withdrawal of emotional support for wrong doings.( 2000,runaway syndrome, psychology4all.com ) . Runaway children belong to different classes and have different reasons for running. Most of them belong to lower class. Children run from villages and come to cities as they think they can earn more money and live a better life. But after leaving their homes they get into wrong hands and get involved in criminal activ ities. Poverty is one of the main cause due to which 60% of the children leave their homes as there is no concept of family planning in our country(Pakistan) thats why the budget is more than the income ,so it is not possible for a poor person to fulfill his familys needs. As the person can not fulfill his childrens wants and needs so he forces them to earn many in any case. For this reason the children try to earn money from illegal ways such as they get involved into criminal activities, they start begging, stealing etc. many children dont want to work and so they end up leaving their homes because for them it is the last option. . In a recent interview conducted from a runaway child (Personal communication, March 26, 2011), named Ahmed Raza he told that he left his home due to the bad conditions of his home. He had 3 brothers and 4 sisters, so it was difficult for his father to support such a huge family thats why his father used to beat him and told him to do work and earn money but he didnt wanted to do that, so he left his home. Sometimes a child doesnt want to leave home but he is forced by his family members to do so as they don have enough money to fulfill their basic needs so they leave them to different NGOs. Or sell them to people so they can use the children for illegal things. I witnessed this thing myself when I visited child protection bureau (CPB). A man came along with her daughter to leave her to the government department, that girl was crying and saying that she didnt wanted to stay there his father said that he would come to meet her. The man took some money from the employee of bureau and left her there. When investigated from the people of bureau they said that the girl had ran from the place she used to work and that the man rescued her and came to drop her to the NGO so they can find her parents and send her back. . The organization was double-dealing or not I dont have any idea but I observed it. Many children run due to their father or mothe r mite be ill or having a swear disease which may also be caused due to poverty. Poverty is one thing which can ruin a blissful family just with in no time. In a recent interview conducted from an employee (Mohamed Amin Malik), working in a government department (CBI), told that a child, whom their team rescued, on asking the reason of leaving home he told that her father had cancer and he had three sisters and its very difficult for him to support them so he ran from home to get some work, so that he can help out this family. According the child protection officer (CPO) of CPB, the main reason due to which children runaway from home is due to neglect ion which is caused due to broken family or if the child is orphan and lives with his relatives . A child needs both mother and fathers love and care but if one isnt present they mite not feel secure and would feel unloved and if both are not present then their life becomes miserable. There differen5t cases in broken families, sometime father had done second marriage and doesnt allow the child t o meet his mother and the stepmother can be bad with the child so the child have only one way out that he should leave that hell. In recent interview (Personal communication, March 26, 2011) conducted from a runaway child who was not normal child. He told that he ran from his home because his father used to hit him and didnt allowed him to meet his mother, so he ran from home because he wanted to live with his mother but as he was not normal he was unable to find his mother. the second reason due to which children run from their home is when their parents are no longer in the world to take care of them and they live with there grandparents , aunts or other relatives . What may come relatives can not draw a comparison with parents. If a child lives with his aunt she can never gives her/him proper time , care and love as she gives to her own children due to this the child feel neglected.. Some relatives also take work from the children and also abuse them if they dont do work they abuse them due to these reasons the child end up leaving that place .A.Akbar (Personal communication, March 26, 2011) told that he had three brothers and one sister . His parents were dead and he used to leave with his aunt. His aunt didnt wanted him to live with her; she used to beat him so he left that place .When he was rescued by the CPB ,they informed his aunt that Akbar is with us but she refused to take him back . There are many different reasons due to which children leave their home .Sometimes its not big reason due to which children leave their homes but unfortunately it becomes. children are innocent and if parents only yell at them they get hurt and just leave their home and go to their relatives or friends place its the duty of relatives or friends to report their parents if their child comes to their place other then giving him more liability. Sometimes children run if their parent doesnt give them proper time as they give to their other siblings. In this way the child feel neglected and start hating his parents and run from his home although he isnt aware of the after affects of this. Children may run due to fight between siblings and parent doesnt stop them from doing this. They may take their fight as a normal thing but it can make a huge disaster. Many children run because they dont want to study and their parents beat them if they dont get good results. If a child fails he/she gets scared that his/her parents would beat him/her, so only one option is left for him/her to run away from his home. A person is recognized by the companionship he possesses. One of the reason due to which children run away from home is peer influence. If they belong to a bad company the chances of running increases. Nowadays children listen more to their friends then to their parents. Kasim (Personal communication, March 26, 2011) told that he came to data durbar with his friends to eat rice and the CPB team rescued him from there. He just came to enjoy with his friends from his home town (Jarawaral). When investigated from the bureau people they told that the boy had ran twice from his home and the main reason due to which he ran is that he doesnt want to do work so he ran from home with his friends There are many different cases due to which children run from their homes from which some of the reasons and causes have been explained after research. This problem is still not solved and increasing day by day. Measures should be taken to solve this problem other wise it would become havoc for our society. Though runaway has become a serious problem , we as adults are able to control it by understanding the hearts of children and giving them loving care .it is possible to change the way of thinking, behavior and emotional status of children while they are growing .(runaway children-an overview ,2008) Problems faced after running away The literal meaning of runaway children are the kids who voluntarily are found missing from their homes at least a few days without taking permission from their parents or caretaker usually due to intolerant domestic conditions or violence The topic of research paper is Run Away Children, and the domain on which the research is being conducted is problems faced by these run away children after running away from their homes. According to the Child Protection Officer, Muhammad Ameen Malik (Child Protection Center, Shalamar), there have been thirty two thousand two hundred and eighty four children rescued from 2005 till now. However according to the UNICEF report there are forty thousand still on streets who are either forced or have deliberately left their homes. The runaway ratio is increasing year by year and is around forty to fifty percent. Run away cases are mostly from the cities of Punjab and Sindh. These children are mostly from the lower middle class families who have low family income and are suffering from continuous family problems. The main reasons that force these children to run away can be listed as parental dispute, peer pressure, poverty, siblings rivalry and work pressure. In certain cases parental dispute exceeds to such an extent that the small minds of children get confused. They become victims of fear of the breakage in the parents relationship. The frequent clashes, disagreements and constant turmoil spoil the inner happiness of young hearts, because they demand peace, love and attention which do not exist. Their dream of a happy home shatters and they shun all negative and leave. Work and peer pressure are also a major reason of running away. Often boy at the age of seven or eight years are forced by their parents to work and earn money for their livelihood. Some of them are sent to workshops and others to road side inns, where the heartless cruel owners, the so called â€Å"ustad jee†, treat these innocent souls ruthlessly. Often being punished by these â€Å"masters†, and consistently rebuked. These small bread winners of the house get over matured before time, discuss things with their co-workers about the luxuries and freedom of others boys of their age enjoy. Often they see kids of their own age traveling in large cars and being pampered by their parents. As a result they revolt. They are left with no other alternative and in search of a better life they run away without realizing the true nature of the city life where wolfs are ready to maltreat them. One reason is an unhealthy criticism regarding education and other attributes. This can be classified as siblings rivalry. At times parents start comparing their own children with one another. Often the younger brother feels that he has no importance in the family because he faces discouragement at every spot. In order to prove his strength he decides to go to his own way to at least avoid a situation where he imagines himself as unwanted and disrespected, which gives rise to hatred and the ignorant figure. Poverty is the most imminent reason behind this misfortune. In poverty stricken homes the inhabitants loses human compassion and becomes distrustful for other members of the family unit. Complaint of lack of food, clothes, education and shelter snatches away love and cares of a demanding and eager child. Moreover the constant insult and thrashing contribute in creating a breach and results breaking up the links. Due to the reasons mentioned above children leave their homes. The question now arises that how do these children leave their cities? What mean of transport do they use to do this? And where do these children finally land up? According to the interviews conducted and the information collected from the management of the Child Protection Center these run away children acquired different modes of transport. Mostly they sit in trains from their local railway stations having no knowledge of their next destination. They are often drifted along on different directions, friendless and penniless. In an alien environment these fear stricken ignorant beings, in search of shelter, roam about from one place to another in quest of being recognized and acknowledged by the big citys complex activities. And from here their difficult entourage of life takes a new turn. After leaving homes there is danger awaiting at every step. The basic problem faced by these children is shelter, and then comes the problem of hunger. Both of these create havoc in life of these runaways. In our Islamic God fearing society the problem of hunger can be met by visiting certain center of free food but shelter is next to impossible. This shows these children the truth that they stand nowhere, no identification, no background and devoid of love and affection, they now have to make their own way into life yet threatened by dangers at every step. During day time they stay on roads but long nights are difficult to spend. They sleep on footpaths and outside the garden walls and later make friendship with other vagabonds, and tramps. The pangs of hunger force them to do all sorts of labor sometimes wiping the screen of cars and collecting pennies in return for buying food. Moral and social destructions are the consequences they face, finally one by one entangled by all bad ha bits. Another problem faced by the runaway children is they join the gang of villains who wickedly train these children as street beggars. At every crossing on traffic signals small children comes up asking for money which is not for their own use but to satisfy the whims of the criminal minded gangsters, thus entering into the hideous world of sinful people. Victimized by the wicked people all sorts of abuse they are exposed to and thus pay the price of leaving the security of their homes. Destruction then has no limits, sometimes these children are arrested by police and are sent to prison but police again cannot put a check on their activities. Thus they grow up as criminals and plague the society. Many of these children also get involved in drugs. Most of the beggars turns into hideous sinful criminal and are also found addicted to drugs. They are involved in selling drugs to students and youngsters. This deadly poison destroys the health and becomes the cause of many fatal cons equences. They not only spoil their own life but involve the future of our nation, the youth, by exposing them to drug addiction. The runaway children in the Child Protection Center helped in doing the research properly. The children interviewed were five in number of different ages, different backgrounds and different reason for running away. One of the children was 10 years old; he said that his step mother beats him so he ran away from home. When asked the question of what

Stages of the Purchasing Decision Process

Stages of the Purchasing Decision Process P-1: Describe the main stages of the purchasing decision making process Business buying decision process Business buying decision process consists of the following steps. Problem recognition General need description Product specification Supplier search Proposal solicitation Supplier selection Order routine specification Performance review (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008) Problem recognition: It will occur when an organization recognizes a problem or need that can be meet by buying a product or service. General need description: Lets assume that an organization wants to improve its services or products soin this step characteristics of the services and products needed are explicitly expressed. Product specification: After the pervious step an organization will express the specification of the product or services which will be of course done with the consultation of the engineering or technical team. Supplier search: In this step an organization will search for the supplier of the goods needed this can be done by reviewing trade directories or by doing computer search. It will obviously short list those one who has good reputation and offers best deals. Proposal solicitation: Once the search is complete then an organization will invite suppliers to submit their proposal, in this case presentation by the supplier might be needed. Supplier selection: In this step the organization will finalize the supplier. Factors like competitive prices, honest communication, quality products and services etc are of great importance in this regard. Order routine specification: At this stage the organization management will prepare an order-routine specification. It will also incorporate final order with selected supplier and list of other elements technical services after sales required, date of delivery return polices and warranties etc. Performance review: After order-routine specification in this step organization will assess the performance of the suppliers products or services. This may lead organization to keep on, change, of drop the arrangement with the supplier. Consumer buying decision process Consumer buying decision process consists of the following steps Need recognition Information search Evaluation of alternatives Purchase decision Post Purchase behavior (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008) Need recognition: The process starts with need recognition the buyer feels that he should have the specific products or services in order to fulfill his need. The reason behind this can be internal stimuli i.e. need to fulfill and external stimuli i.e. products or services ads. Information search: An interested prospect intending to buy products or services will search for information regarding various companies offering those products or services. He will use sources like internet, friends etc. Evaluation of alternatives:The marketing people of companies need to know about how various consumers evaluate products or services well the process is not easy to understand. Here the consumers might keep the following points of evaluation criteria prices, quality, and brand. Purchase decision: Normally the consumer is suppose to buy that product or service which up to highest level fulfill his evaluation criteria but even at this stage same factor might alter consumers decisions. Post Purchase behavior: Consumers buying decision process does not end with the purchase of the product or service it engages itself in post-purchase process. This determines whether the buyer is satisfied with product or service bought or not. If satisfied then good word mouth will happen and vice versa. Consumers satisfaction, dissatisfaction or delightedness depends upon buyer expectations and the product or service quality perceived performance. P-2: Identify approaches and theories of buyer behavior in terms of individuals and markets The basic purpose of marketing is to affect how customers think about the organization and about its products. To affect whats, whens, and hows of the buying behavior, marketing managers should first understand the whys. Buying behavior is very hard to understand yet it is extremely important task that marketer need to perform. If a marketer can identify buying behavior of its target audience, he or she will be in a better position to target products and services at them. Buyer behavior is focused upon the needs of individuals, groups and organizations. Talking about buyer fundamentally there are two types of buyers recognized the first is the Ultimate consumers and the second one is business buyers (in this outcome markets refers to business buyers). Ultimate Consumers: Those individuals and households who buy good and services for personal consumption. Business buyer: Those firms that buy goods and services for the use in the production of their products and services or for the purpose of reselling and renting them to others at a profit. Approaches used to alter target audience buying behavior Model for Consumer behavior For companies the buying decision is the most crucial element for their entire organization. The most prominent question in the regard is that: how do consumers respond to different marketing activities that a firm might use? The first step in finding the solution to this important question can be stimulus response model of consumer buying behavior. This model suggests that marketing efforts and other stimuli enter the consumers â€Å"black box† and produce certain responses. Marketers must understand what is their in that black box. Marketing stimuli consists of four Ps and includes other major environmental forces and actors like economic, technological etc. All these inputs go in the black box, where these efforts are converted into various responses like product choice, dealer choice, purchase timing etc. The important thing that marketers need to figure out is that what is there in black box. It has twp parts first buyers characteristics influence how he or she perceives and reacts to the stimuli. Secondly the buyers decision itself affects the buyer behavior. (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008) Model for business buyers This model helps the marketers to understand that how business buyers will respond to various marketing stimuli. The marketing and the other stimuli which are carved in order to affect buyer behavior are similar to the consumer model. How ever the expected responses are little bit different which include Product or service choice, supplier choice, order quantity etc. the biggest difference between consumer and business model is the difference between the factors and people which alter and perform buying process. With in the organization purchasing those goods consists two major parts: the buying center i.e. the people who make the ultimate decision and buying process. This approach suggests four questions about business buyer behavior. What buying decisions do business buyers make? Who participates in the buying process? What are the major factors that influence buying process? How does an organization make its buying decision? (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008) Types of individual and business buying behavior situation Types of individual buying behavior situations Complex buying behavior: in this type of buying the situation the consumer is highly involved in the purchase process and there is a clear perceived different among various brands. For example if someone intends to buy an insurance policy in this case he is highly involved in the process along with having significant information about various companies. Dissonance- reducing buying behavior: when the consumer is highly involved in the purchase process but he knew very little about companies offering that particular good i.e. he cannot differentiate brands for example in Pakistan if someone intend to buy a dry cleaner in this case he or she may deeply involve in the buying but having very less information about the brands. Habitual buying behavior: this type of buying process incurs when there is low involvement of consumer and the buyer has few significant perceived differences about brands. Variety seeking buyer behavior: It occurs under the condition of low consumer involvement in the purchasing process but having significant knowledge about different brand. For example buying a cold drink. Types of Business buying behavior situations Straight re-buy: an organization buying things in a routine order without any modification. For example if a car company buys tires on routine basis without any medication. Modified re-buy: in this buying situation the buyer reorders something but along with instructions of some modification. For example if Car Company reorders tires but with some modifications lets say with good quality rubber. New-Task: when a business buys any product or service for the first time this type of buying situation is called new task. For example if a Car company diversify and buy machine for tire manufacturing. System selling: Purchasing a packaged solution to some problem for single seller as a result ignoring all the separate decision involved in a complex buying situation. This is often a key marketing strategy for availing and retaining business accounts. (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008) Theories regarding individual and business buying behavior Maslows theory of Motivation Abraham Maslows through his famous theory explained that how human beings are motivated by particular needs at particular times. He argued that all behaviors start with a need: physical needs social acceptances are examples of needs. Why does a person spend so much of money and time on personal security and on gaining social status? His answer to this is that human needs are arranged in hierarchy from the most compelling one in the start and the least compelling one at the end. These needs include physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self actualization needs. An individual tires to attain such means through the most pressing (physiological needs) needs can be satisfied once one levels needs are sufficiently enough satisfied then an individual will endeavor to satisfy the next levels needs like for example any body physical and security needs should be satisfied sufficient enough in order to get telecom services as this services can be related to belongings level because many people buy this service in order to communicate. (Maslow, Blogger, 1954) Freud was psychologist he believed that people are largely unaware about the actual psychological forces shaping their behavior. He observed that people while growing up keep inside many urges which are never eliminated or under full control: they are expressed in dreams, slips of tongue etc, or some times in psychoses. His theory suggested that human beings buying decisions are influenced by subconscious motives that the purchaser may not fully understand. For example if any person buys a Mercedes might say that I have bought it because its very comfortable and make status statement. At a deeper level the actual reason might be to eliminate the feel of inferiority. (Kotler, Armstrong, 2008) P-3: Explain the factors that affect buyer behavior As explained earlier that there are two types of buyer who are the ultimate consumer and second one is business buyer here factors that influence there buying behavior is explained separately for both. Factors that affect final consumers buying behavior Consumer behavior is deeply affected by cultural, social, personal, and psychological characteristics these factors at most of the time are uncontrollable. These factors are explained in detail which is as follows: Cultural factors Culture: Culture is basic reason behind any person wants and behavior. Human beings behavior is mostly learned. As time passes our culture is becoming more materialistic which implies that people will buy more electronic and other technological goods so changing culture is a bit difficult for those firms which are not advanced technologically. Subculture: Each culture has smaller subcultures. It is basically a group of people who have same value system based on ordinary life experience and conditions. Social class: Social classes are a society‘s permanent and arranged sections whose members beliefs in common values, interests and ways of doing things. It is not determined by keeping on element in mind like income rather factors like occupation, income, education, wealth, and other variables are kept in mind. Social factors Groups: A persons way of doing things is also altered by the group to which he belongs. Group can affect firms target audience in some way or other. Reference group: Reference group for a person is that group to which he admires. It serve wither in straight (face to face) or indirect point of judgment or reference in forming a persons attitude or behavior. People most of times are influenced by reference group to which they do not belong. Family: It is the most significant consumer buying unit in a society and it has been researched widely. Marketing managers must pay a great deal of attention to the roles of consumers which deeply influence the purchase decision while buying products or services to themselves. Roles and status: A person at the same time belongs to different groups- family, organization, clubs, etc. A role consists of actions that one is suppose to execute according to environment around him or her. Very role contain a status representing the general esteem given to it by society. Personal factors Age and life cycle stage: Choices of food, clothes, etc are often age related. People change their buying habits with changes in their age. Purchasing is also influenced by the stage of the family life cycle- the stages through which families might. Occupation: An individual occupation influence the choice of goods and services bought. Economic situation: A persons buying pattern is affected by economic situation in a very significant manner. For example economy of Pakistan is in a worst shape so people will have less money to spend which they will buy products or services too so this factor is really important for firms. Life styles: life style is a person way of living presented in this or her psychographics. Individuals which belong to same culture, subculture, social class and occupation may have different life style. Life style portrays something more than on persons social class or personality. Personality and self concept: Personality means the distinct psychological attributes that lead to comparatively consistent and lasting responses to ones own world. Each person distinct personality put and effect on his or her buying pattern. It is usually described in term traits like self confidence, autonomy, adaptability and aggressiveness. Many marketers utilize a notion related to personality i.e. â€Å"self concept†. The idea which self concept convey is that people possessions contribute to and reflect their identities; that is we are what we have. Hence to understand your target audience psyche first you must understand the relationship between self concept and possessions. Psychological factors Motivation: Human beings at the same time have many needs. Some are biological such as hunger, thirst or discomfort others are physiological, arising from the need of recognition, esteem, or belonging. A need transformed into a motive when its deficiency is experienced up to an intense level thus compelling a person to satisfy it. Two famous theory regarding motivation were proposed by Sigmund friend and Abraham Maslow. Perception: It is the procedure by which human being select, organize, and interpret information to form meaningful picture of the world. If for example people perceive a firm as a good company so more and more people will buy its products or services as its existing customers will suggest it to others. Learning: When people take action they learn. Learning is basically changes in the individuals behavior as a consequence of experience. It incurs when on interacts with stimuli, cues, responses and reinforcement. When one buy firms products or services and or respond to its advertisements and if he/she found the sayings of firm correct so consumers will learn about its products and services in a positive manner and vice versa. Beliefs and attitude: A belief is an expressive thought that a person has about something. It may be based upon real knowledge, opinion, or faith and it also may or may not have an emotional factor. It is of great importance to any firm marketers because it shapes its brand image that alters purchasing decision. Attitudes are comparatively consistent evaluations, feeling, and tendencies toward object or idea. It structures people liking and disliking patterns. Changing someone attitudes is a very hard task to perform. P-4: Evaluate the relationship between brand loyalty, corporate image, and repeat purchase Before explaining the relationship between these three elements first its definition one should understand its definitions. Brand loyalty: brands that consumer generally buy from the same manufacturer repeatedly over time rather that buying it from multiple suppliers within the category. It also refers to the degree to which consumers consistently purchase the same brand within the product class. (12manage) Corporate image: The perceptions and impressions of an organization by the public as a result of interaction with the organization and the way the organization presents itself. Organizations have traditionally focused on the design of communication and advertising materials, using logos, symbols, text, and color to create a favorable impression on target groups, but a variety of additional activities contribute to a positive corporate image these include PR programs. (CBS Interactive Business Network) Positioning (the way the consumer perceive you or in simple words corporate image) of a company is affected by Performance of an organization Features of products or services Shape of firms offering Distribution channel used Location of a company offices and outlets Countries of origin i.e. the country where organizations headquarter are located. For example France is famous for perfumes so some company office is there so it is obvious that people will perceive it in a positive manner. This factor has been discussed deeply by famous Harvard professor Michael E Porter in his book â€Å"Competitive Advantage of Nations†. A company that mismanages or ignores its image is likely to encounter a variety of problems. Reputation problems grow like weed in a garden, Davis Young wrote in his book â€Å"Building Your Companys Good Name. Four types of positioning error can occur Under positioning: in this condition firm is not able to portray full benefits of its offerings. Over Positioning: in such status quo company narrow its image in the mind of consumers. Confused Positioning: consumers are confused that what does this company really offers and to whom. Doubtful Positioning: in this situation buyers are skeptical that whether whatever the company is saying is true or not. Repeat purchase: This term is referred to the notion when customer buys the same brand purchased by him on the previous occasion; also called repurchase. Brand loyalty can be calculated by a pattern of repeat purchases. For retaining (repeat purchasing) so that consumers buy your product again and again the business should produce better product then their competitors. P-5: Review and evaluate different type of market research techniques? Marketing research is a systematic design of collection, analysis and reporting of data in order to improve management decision by providing relevant, accurate, and timely (RAT) information. (Aaker, Kumar and Day, 2005 p.no.1) Marketing researchers employ different kinds of research techniques in order to meet their research objective. The following are different kinds of marketing research techniques which are discussed and evaluated in detail below: Qualitative marketing research techniques Observational marketing research technique Different surveys techniques (Quantitative methods) Experimentation Qualitative marketing research techniques: These methods are less structures and more flexible. Data gathered from these kind of marketing research techniques is very rich and deep because of the longer and flexible relationship with the respondents which implies more chances of new insights and perspectives. There are three main areas where these techniques can be employed. Exploratory: defining the problem, suggesting hypothesis etc. Orientation: learning more about consumer real motives; the way the think. Clinical: having and insight in to such issues that otherwise is might not be possible to know with structured research methods. So for the following qualitative marketing research techniques have been identified and employed by researchers. Individual in-depth interviews Focus group session Projective techniques Individual in-depth interviews: These types of interviews are employed by having a face to face contact with the respondents in which an issue is discussed in great details. There are two basic types of individual in depth interviews which are nondirective and semi structured. In nondirective interviews the interviewee is given full freedom to respond within the limits of issue under discussion, such sessions are one to two hour long. In semi structured interviews the researcher attempt to explore only those area which are on his list. The time and exact wording are pre decided for each question to be discussed. Advantages Studies can be conducted in remote area through telephone in depth interview. Data gathered is rich and deep because of the time consumed. Focus on research issue. More value: it helps the researcher to find unconscious motivational factors. Semi structured interviews are very flexible to interview busy executive because time and wording is pre decided. Disadvantages Time consuming because most of time these sessions are conducted for 1 to 2 hours. Difficulty regarding record keeping most of people especially executives dont like tape recorders. As very few people are considered for the research so it means a poor representative of the whole population This type of techniques requires very skilled researcher which might become a problem in some situations. Focus group sessions: It is the process of attaining possible idea or solutions to a marketing issue from a group of people by discussing it. The basic elements which makes a focus group session successful or flop is group interaction on a chain of topics introduced by a moderator. The group included consists of five to nine members who are encouraged to express their opinion on the issue, and to further explain or react with the views of other respondents. The main aim is similar to unstructured interview but the moderator plays a more inactive role in the discussion. Advantages It provides more encouragement than an in depth interview which results in new perspectives. People speak out in these sessions because of a sense of security by being in a crowd (group behavior). More depth: as it names explains that these session are focused on one issue which means more value and deepness in the data. Sparking: some time one person views sparks a new idea in another respondents mind which is unlikely to happen in depth interviews. Disadvantages Time consuming: as these sessions are conducted for 2 to 3 hours. Again the respondents selected might not a better representation of the population. Poorly conducted session leads towards wrong results which mean waste of time and money Its cost is very high. Analysis and interpretation of the data collected is very complex because of dispersion in the respondents opinions. Projective techniques: This technique is employed by presenting an ambiguous, unstructured object, activity, or person that a respondent is asked to explain. Respondents involvement is directly proportional to level of ambiguity which will result in hidden motives and feeling. This technique become a part of whole research design when it is expected that a populations sample will not or cannot respond expressively to a direct questions about the reason for certain behavior and about the motives behind buying certain products. It has different kinds for example word association, picture interpretation, case studies etc. Advantages It is used by researchers where other techniques cannot be used to obtain the research objective i.e. it helps to identify hidden consumer motives. By using this technique a marketer can identify opportunities for really new functions in any product category. The word association technique has been very useful for obtaining responses to potential brand names. Strong control on research information as it is a simulation test so it wholly depends upon the researcher that where he want to take the research. Disadvantages Very difficult to employ because of its complexities and skill requirement for the researcher. It might be very hard find the right persons for these tests. It might not be possible to employ this research method in some parts of the world because of the technology requirement for these tests. Idea taken from (Aaker, Kumar and Day, marketing research, 2005) Observational marketing research technique: Observational research or field research is research technique that involves the direct observation of people in their natural setting. There are many types of observational methods which have been identified and implemented by researchers. These methods have yielded very good results. Some organization believe very much in observational methods for example Swedish home appliances maker Electrolux. These techniques are widely used in retail store audits, shelf space audit etc. its different kinds are direct observation, contrived observation, Content analysis, Physical trace methods, etc. These methods are limited to providing information on current behavior. Due to this strong argument many researchers do not use these methods. However there are some strong reasons that why observational research should be used in overall research design. Some of the reasons are as follow; Causal observation is an important exploratory research technique. Organization managers constantly observe factors such as competitive prices and advertising activities the length of lines of buyer waiting to buy products of that particular company and read trade journal in order identify threats and opportunities. Systematic observation can be fruitful addition to other research methods. For example during a personal interview if a researcher observe the respondents race, his neighborhood, and other conditions under which he lives so it this data can supplement his analysis . It can be some time the most effect way to check the effectiveness of some activities. For example it can help a researcher to observe in store traffic pattern, check the effectiveness of in store advertising etc. Advantages It is probably the less expensive if compared with other research methods. The data achieved through this method is most accurate because the consumers is un-aware that he is been observed so every action is original. Some time the observation is the only method that can employed. This is the case with infant children they are not able to clearly identify their choices so observing them is the only choice. Physical trace method tough used very rarely is also sometimes the only option left. For example if someone want to measure the amount of Alcohol consumed in Peshawar so it can only measured by counting the bottles in carbides because officially Alcohol is not allowed for sale in Peshawar. Disadvantages Observational methods only observe current behavior they cannot observe human motives, attitudes, or indentations. It may be sometimes very costly and time consuming if there is a sample problems of the research is supposed to highly subjective. It cannot be used to study cognitive or affective variables. Idea taken from (Aaker, Kumar and Day, marketing research, 2005) Different surveys techniques (Quantitative methods): Following are the different kinds of survey techniques Personal interviewing Telephone interviewing Mail surveys Web surveys Personal interviewing: It is characterized by the interaction of the four elements the researchers, the interviewers, the interviewee and the interview environment. While a personal interview the interviewer interact with interviewee and at the same time affect on another in an interview environment. Door to door interviews, executives interviews, Mall intercept surveys; self- administrated questionnaires, etc are the types of this kind of techniques. Advantages Interest can created in the start through face to face interaction with respondents which will increase the participation rate. This mode of research can very useful when respondents are asked complex questions. This problem can be eliminated by showing him pictorial aids. It is the most feasible option when large amount of data is required and the questionnaires contain complex questions. This type of method has got more flexibility. Some questions can be skipped by the researcher in order to save time if needed. Disadvantages Personal interviews are time consuming. It cost a lot as it is administrated for large samples. Because of time and cost expenditures per person it cost more than mail or telephone surveys. Telephone interviewing: It is generally more like personal interviewing expect some elements are unique. Its process includes selecting the telephone numbers, the call outcomes, the introduction, when to call and call reports. This is gradually becoming the widespread method for obtaining information from large sample. Advantages It has got more operational flexibility as it can administrated from central place in appropriate hours or from the examiner home. It less time consuming as more interviews can be conducted in less time. Time can be better utilized for example if the survey is based on teenagers so one can call on that time on which they are expected to be at home. It is more efficient than other metho