Three Eras of Communication free essay sample

This paper will explain the nature of three eras of communication as reflected in a specific example taken from very recent, contemporary times. The following paper discusses the Three Eras of Communication,? that Sarah Russell Hankins? talks about in her essay. According to her essay, three eras of communication can be divided roughly as existing in three distinct eras or forms of idea transmission. The author discusses the primary orality era, the literary era and the secondary literary orality. From the paper: The second of these eras is that of the secondary or literary era of communication. To a certain extent, to call this era secondary is disingenuous, as many cultures, such as that of the early Celtic culture in Ireland, never moved onto a literary form of communication, and obviously oral transmission occurs on a daily basis in literate cultures. However, Hankins point is that the introduction of literacy changes the nature of both written and oral communication, as well as introducing a new venue for that communication. We will write a custom essay sample on Three Eras of Communication or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This era moves stretches through the invention of the first alphabet to the introduction of the printing press in the Middle Ages.

Lights and Sounds Museum Essay Example

Lights and Sounds Museum Essay â€Å" The trip on February 10 , 2011 to Lights and Sounds was very educational and was very fun . The parts about Jose P. Rizal were very interesting and I learned a lot about his life. There were two parts that scared me the most . First , was the one where we saw the characters of Noli Me Tangere and El Felibusterismo . What scared me there was Sisa , because of her laugh( while she cried ) and how she moved . The second thing that scared me was at the last part when we entered the room the lights went of and we could only hear voices . I’m so glad I’ve gotten over it easily . I’ve also seen how big Intramuros is just by looking at it’s model . Although, there were parts I didn’t quite understand . At the end of the tour we all sat down on the floor to watch a video and at the end of that video the doors were opened by a soldier . The light sort of blinded our eyes. I think it was because we spent time in the dark for an hour. I had a laugh with my friends about that part . All the lessons I’ve had since Grade Four started coming back to me . It was like a review for us . I’ve also learned more details to Jose Rizal’s life . My classmates and I enjoyed the trip going there because we got to spend it together . It was our last field trip in CCWB . I’m so glad to have went there and I feel like I want to go back this time with my family . We will write a custom essay sample on Lights and Sounds Museum specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Lights and Sounds Museum specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Lights and Sounds Museum specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer

A Stage Model for Transitioning to Kam Essays

A Stage Model for Transitioning to Kam Essays A Stage Model for Transitioning to Kam Essay A Stage Model for Transitioning to Kam Essay A stage model for transitioning to KAM Iain A. Davies, University of Bath, UK* Lynette J. Ryals, Cran? eld School of Management, UK Abstract This paper investigates the under-researched area of key account management (KAM) implementation through a systematic review of the literature, syndications with a panel of industry exemplars, and a survey investigating how organisations implement KAM. Through this we identify a stage model that identifies not only how companies currently transition to KAM in practice, but also suggests how they could improve their chances of success in transitioning to KAM. We demonstrate the fundamental elements of a KAM programme and the extent to which companies feel KAM has met their pre-implementation expectations. Keywords Key Account Management, Strategic Account Management, Sales management, Industrial marketing, Implementation INTRODUCTION Key Account Management (KAM) has emerged, over the last 30 years, as one of the most significant trends in business-to-business marketing practice (Abratt and Kelly 2002; Homburg et al. 2002). It focuses on adding value to relationships and creating partnerships with a company’s most important and strategic customers (Ewart 1995; McDonald et al. 2000). The emergence of KAM has been driven in companies of all sizes by an increase in large, powerful, global, centralised purchasing customers becoming the norm across multiple industries; KAM provides our current best model for servicing these customers (McDonald et al. 997). Despite the rapid growth in the use of KAM by companies, research into the process of KAM implementation and how companies transition from traditional sales to KAM orientation has been scarce (Kempeners and Hart 1999; Napolitano *Correspondence details and biographies for the authors are located at the end of the article. JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT, 2009, Vol. 25, No. 9-10, pp. 1027-1048 ISSN0267-257X print /ISSN1472-1376 online  © Westburn Publishers Ltd. doi: 10. 1362/026725709X479354 1028 JMM Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 25 1997; Sengupta et al. 997; Wengler et al. 2006; Zupanic 2008). This is a gap that urgently needs to be filled. Without some agreement about which approaches to KAM implementation work (and which do not work, called for by Zupanic 2008), there is a danger that companies will continue to struggle or even fail to implement KAM appropriately (Homburg et al. 2002; Napolitano 1997). In this paper we use empirical evidence to develop a cross-industry stage model of how companies transition to KAM, including what elements of a KAM programme they implement through this process and the success this has led to. We identify the elements of KAM implementation programmes through an in-depth systematic review of the literature. Using a survey based on this input we investigate 204 companies with explicit, formal KAM programmes and build a model of the key principles important to KAM implementation over time. A syndicate of seven leading companies was also used in isolation of the results of the survey to add context and analytical input. The synergy between the two methods provides a robust and original contribution to both KAM practice and literature. KEY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT The emergence of relationship marketing in the late 1980s led to a growing interest in getting and keeping customers through relationship management (e. g. Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne 1991; Gronroos 1994, 1997; Sheth and Parvatiyar 1995; Aijo 1996; Gummesson 1997). Relationship marketing was extended and developed during the 1980s and 1990s, particularly in business-to-business markets where formalised programme s of customer management have gained increasing importance including: national account management (Shapiro and Moriarty 1980, 1982, 1984a, 1984b; Stevenson 1980, 981; Tutton 1987; Wotruba 1996; Weilbacker and Weeks 1997; Dishman and Nitze 1998); major account management (Barrett 1986; Colletti and Tubridy 1987); and, more recently, to manage the most strategically important relationships of the business, KAM (Wilson 1993; Pardo, Salle and Spencer 1995; Millman and Wilson 1995, 1996, 1998; McDonald, Millman and Rogers 1997; Abratt and Kelly 2002; Homburg et al. 2002) or even Global Account Management (Yip and Madsen 1996; Millman 1996; Millman and Wilson 1999; Holt 2003). For ease of use we will continue to use the acronym KAM to refer to these related bodies of work. KAM is a systematic process for managing business-to-business relationships that are of strategic importance to a supplier (Millman and Wilson 1995). It first emerged as a response to the pressures placed upon supplier companies by globalisation, increasing customer power, procurement sophistication and the need to find new ways to work with the most important customers (Pardo 1997; Wengler et al. 2006). It involves the adoption of collaborative ways of working with customers rather than traditional transactional and adversarial relationships (McDonald Woodburn 2007). Therefore it represents a fundamental change in the way companies operate their sales and marketing functions, not leading to a tactical shift in operations, but a more broad ranging change management programme (Storbacka et al. 2009). Studies in the early 2000s found a substantial concentration of supplier business into a decreasing number of key accounts, and that the service demands of such key accounts were increasing (Gosman and Kelly 2000, 2002). The ability to extract better service levels and, possibly, lower prices from suppliers meant that the benefits Davies and Ryals A stage model for transitioning to KAM 1029 to the customer of being given preferential treatment are clear and indeed there is evidence that customers may demand or instigate KAM amongst their suppliers for such reasons (Brady 2004; Homburg et al. 2000; Wengler et al. 2006). Therefore close collaborative relationships with suppliers are thought to yield between 10% and 100% more value than less collaborative nes for the customer (Hughes Weiss 2007). The benefits of KAM to the suppliers are less clear-cut, since customers may try to â€Å"bargain away† benefits in the form of lower prices (Kalwani and Narayandas 1995) sometimes resulting in relationships with the largest customers becoming unprofitable for suppliers (e. g. Cooper and Kaplan 1991; Reinartz and Kumar 2002). Napolitano (1997) goes as far as to suggest that the majority KAM programmes a ppear ineffective as a result. This shows that the benefits to suppliers of KAM are not automatic and require careful management. Although evidence exists that long-term relationships with larger customers can pay off for suppliers through higher revenues and faster growth rates (Bolen and Davis 1997), even where power asymmetries are considerable (Narayandas and Rangan 2004), we still lack a clear generalisable view of how companies implement KAM, and the respective levels of success this achieves (Kempeners Hart 1999; Sengupta, Krapfel and Pusateri 1997; Wengler et al. 2006). We therefore explore this in our next section. IMPLEMENTING KEY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT There is limited research on how KAM is implemented. A few scholars have attempted synthesis of the existing research to form frameworks and surveys for further research on KAM implementation (Homburg, et al. 2002; Wengler et al. 2006; Zupanic 2008) and a similar process has been undertaken for this paper. Table 1 (overleaf) represents a synthesis of the elements that the literature suggest firms implement as part of their formal KAM programmes. Broadly speaking, these elements represent the core components to most KAM implementations, with suppliers doing more or less of certain activities at different stages of the KAM programme’s life cycle. In Zupanic’s (2008) synthesis the elements of KAM are separated into the activities of the individuals within the organisation (Operational KAM) and those at the organisational level (Corporate KAM). Although a neat separation, the activities of the individual in a formal KAM program are likely to be driven from an organisational level decision and as such we have not separated these out in our analysis because we are interested in what the organisation is attempting to implement. Furthermore, we have not differentiated the elements of KAM based on the A-R-A model (Activities – Resources – Actors) as undertaken in the seminal work by Homburg et al. (2002), because we are interested in the elements of KAM that companies are implementing, rather than the artefacts or interested parties which result from implementation. This is a fundamental difference in how we look at KAM in this paper compared to both Homburg et al. (2002) and Zupanic (2008). We are investigating KAM as an ongoing transitioning process rather than the pre-existing, fully implemented programme assumed in these previous works. For instance, of the eight typologies which result from the Homburg, et al. (2002) synthesis and survey, only two types of KAM [1] Top management KAM and 4) Cross-functional dominant KAM] represent effective KAM programmes and there is little explanation of what these KAM programmes are like or how the organisations achieved them. 1030 JMM Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 25 TABLE 1 Elements of KAM implementation in the literature Elements of KAM Implementation Senior manager buy-in Papers Brady 2004; Homburg et al. 002; Montgomery et al. 1998; Napolitano 1997 Napolitano 1997; Workman et al. 2003; Yip and Madsen 1996 McDonald et al. 2000 Description Manger buy in is necessary for success Increased overall knowledge of KAM improves A pioneer often pushes KAM through the organisation Company wide knowledge of KAM A KAM Champion Active involvement of top management in KAM An organisational culture that supports KAM Napolitano 1997; Millman and Manger buy in and active Wilson 1999 ; Workman et al. involvement is necessary for 2003 success Homburg et al. 002; Millman and Wilson 1999; Pardo 1999; Workman et al. 2003 Culture is one of the three biggest influences on KAM implementation in MW and HWJ discuss espirit de corps Espirit de corps Everyone in the organisation understanding KAM Defined key account selection criteria Homburg et al. 2002; Brady 2004; Reisel et al. , 2005; Workman et al. , 2003; Yip and Madsen, 1996 Gosselin and Bauwen 2006; McDonald et al. 2000; Ojasalo 2001; Spencer 1999; Wong 1998 Gosselin and Bauwen 2006; McDonald et al. 2000; Ojasalo, 2001 Customer portfolio matrix Clearly identified key accounts Individual key account plans Identify those accounts that are growth attractive McDonald et al. 2000; Ojasalo, Each account should be 2001; Ryals and Rodgers, planned separately to ensure 2007 appropriate service Evaluation procedure in KAM is lacking Social exchanges such as KAM can provide competitive benefits Strategic relationship can lead to mutual investment Look at the lifetime value of customers Evaluation procedure in KAM is lacking Cont’d A well developed Napolitano 1997 feedback process with key customers Joint activities with key accounts Joint investment with key accounts A business case for KAM Targets for key accounts Koka and Prescott 2002; Workman et al. , 2003 Koka and Prescott 2002; Ojasalo, 2001 Reinartz and Kumar 2000, 2002 Napolitano 1997 Davies and Ryals A stage model for transitioning to KAM 1031 Elements of KAM Implementation Benchmarking against other organisations for KAM Measurement of the performance of the KAM programme Appointed Key Account Managers Fully trained Key Account Managers Papers Napolitano 1997 Description Evaluation procedure in KAM is lacking Evaluation procedure in KAM is lacking Skill sets for KAMs are different to those in sales Montgomery et al. 1998; Napolitano 1997; Ojasalo, 2001 McDonald et al. 1997; Weeks and Stevens 1997 McDonald et al. 1997; Ojasalo Skill sets for KAMs are different to those in sales 2001; Shetcliffe 2004; Weeks and Stevens 1997; Yip and Madsen 1996 Alonzo 1996; Guenzi and Pardo 2007; Arnett et al. 005 Clear move since the mid1990’s towards teams of sales and account managers Account managers are usually rewarded with higher salary and less bonus KAM organisations should be differently structured to Sales organisations formalised arrangements for accounts lead to improved co-ordination Key accounts are better served and therefore the managers need influence over gaining the necessary service levels Key account should get higher service levels Key account should get higher service levels KAM teams Specific motivation and Ryals and Rodgers 2006a; reward schemes for Weilbaker 1999 Key Account Managers Changes in organisational structure to accommodate KAM Coletti and Tubrity 1987; McDonald et al. 1997; Millman and Wilson 1996; Pardo 1999 Established policies Gosselin and Bauwen 2006; and procedures for McDonald et al. 2000; Senn handling key accounts 1999 Key Account Managers having good access to internal resources Ojasalo 2001, 2002; Workman et al. 003; Ryals and Humphries 2007 Differentiated and higher service levels for key accounts IT support for KAM Workman et al. 2003; Ivens and Pardo 2007 Brady 2004; Ojasalo 2001; Workman et al. 2003 The other six typologies [2) Middle management KAM; 3) Operating level KAM; 5) Unstructured KAM; 6) Isolated KAM; 7) Country Club KAM; 8) No KAM] represent either highly inefficient KAM (typologies 2, 3, 5 and 6) or are not a formal KAM programme (Typologies 7 and 8). This may be an artefact of the sampling method because only 9% of the respondents were actually Key Account Managers (Kams), but this still leaves us with little understanding of how companies could implement KAM better, or move from one of these inefficient models to a better performing, more robust model. Wengler et al. (2006) provide us with a detailed exploration of some of the 1032 JMM Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 25 rationales for companies implementing KAM, as well as a limited exploration of what the programmes can look like. Indeed Wengler et al. (2006) indicate this same tendency to view KAM implementation as a long transitioning process when they suggest â€Å"Implementing Key Account Management thus requires a lot of coordination effort and intensity (Moon and Gupta 1997) and often seems to be a long-lasting, laborious process† [p. 108]. They are also able to identify that companies are utilising customer prioritisation processes, changing the role of Kams in the organisation and defining different levels of responsibility for the KAM programme. However their low respondent numbers (only 49 respondent companies had actually implemented KAM) and limited exploration of the different elements of KAM still leave us with few generalisable indicators of how companies transition from sales-led to KAMled organisations. This considerable gap in the previous research is explored in this paper RESEARCH APPROACH AND METHOD To meet our exploratory research objective of understanding how companies transition to KAM we developed a 7-point Likert scale survey applicable across industries based on the literature summarised in Table 1. We specifically targeted companies with existing formal KAM programmes and sought information around three research questions: Why they implemented KAM; to what extent the elements of a KAM programme were implemented; and, how successful their KAM programme had been. The aim was to gain broad insight across multiple industries. For a field of research in its third decade it is surprising that the KAM literature has still produced few generalisable empirical insights. The majority of the extant literature is conceptual (Cheverton 2008; Ojasalo 2001, 2002; Pardo et al. 2006; Piercy and Lane 2006a+b; Ryals and Holt, 2007 etc. ), with the majority of empirical work preferring case studies (Helander and Moller 2008; Natti et al. 2006; Rogers and Ryals 2007; Ryals and Humphries 2007; Spencer 1999) or interviews (McDonald, Millman and Rogers 1997; Pardo 1997; Zupancic 2008), which, although useful for building rich context and new insights, offer little in the way of generalisability. Much of the existing quantitative research, as summarised in Table 2, suffers in terms of generality due to small sample sizes (most too small to use with ANOVA, MANOVA, SEM or LCM packages effectively without data augmentation through bootstrapping), and surprisingly few studies actually investigate key account managers (Kams), preferring to focus on customers or colleagues to gain insights. Both of these could be explained through the difficulty in identifying Kams within organisations because: they rarely have KAM in their title, are few in number compared to their sales or marketing equivalents, and are sometime not well known within their own organisation as distinct from either of these two groups. Problems of this sort affected earlier pilots of this study and to overcome this we targeted Kams specifically through executive education programmes, as did Guenzi et al. (2007, 2009), McDonald et al. 1997), Montgomery et al. (1998), Ryals and Rogers (2007) and Wengler et al. (2006). The survey sample comprised attendees at a series of KAM-specific executive educational programmes, making it a highly purposive sampling method. To gain a large enough sample size the data took 3 years to collect; analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests between the years of collection suggested no significant differences Davies and Ryals A stage model for transitioning to KAM 1033 TABLE 2 Summar y of quantitative studies in KAM Authors Guenzi, Georges Pardo Ivens Pardo Ivens Pardo Ryals Rogers Guenzi, Pardo Georges Gosselin Bauwen Wengler, Ehret Saab Reisel, Chia, Maloles Arnett, Macy Wilcox Homburg, Workman Jr. , Jensen Georges, Laurent; Eggert, Andreas Workman, Homburg Jensen Abratt Kelly Homburg, Workman Jr. , Jensen Montgomery, Yip Villalonga Sengupta Krapfel Sharma Year Survey’s target Sample Size 127 297 297 37 127 115 91** 353 60 385 102 385 190 385 191 176 109 % of Which KAMs 100% 0% 0% 43% 100% 100%* 1 8. % 0% 50% 9%†  0% 9%†  48% 9%†  0%†¡ 100% 0% 2009 KAMs 2008 Purchasers 2007 Purchasers 2007 International companies + customers 2007 KAMs 2006 Account Managers 2006 Sales Engineers 2005 Operations 2005 Selling teams 2002 Head of Sales Organisation 2003 Purchasers 2003 Head of Sales Organisation 2002 KAMs and Customers 2000 Head of Sales Organisation 1998 Senior International Execs. 1997 NAMA members 1997 Purchasers 100% is assumed as the actual figures are unreported, the evidence shown elsewhere however may suggest this assumption is in error ** Only 54% actually had a KAM programme †  49% of the sample were Sales and Marketing VPs indicating a responsibility for KAM, however 171 (45% of the sample) had no formalised KAM Programme according to the results of the Homburg et al. , 2000 paper. †¡ GAM survey with only 136 reported using GAM between collection years. Over the 3 years a total of 286 delegates attended these events and 212 surveys were returned, eight of these indicated they did not yet have a formal KAM programme leaving 204 usable surveys (71. 3% response rate). Surveys were handed out before the commencement of the course to be completed during registration and collected as the course began, to minimise the impact of the course on the responses (Table 3, overleaf, shows descriptive statistics for the respondents). 1034 JMM Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 25 TABLE 3 Descriptive statistics on respondents Number Region of companies UK North America Northern Europe Southern Europe Middle East and North Africa Australasia Industry Service Professional Financial Service Industrial Complex Manufacture Manufacture Unknown Years in Sales/KAM 1-5yrs 6-10yrs 10-15yrs 15-20yrs 20-25yrs 25-30yrs Years of KAM Programme 6 48 48 41 49 18 204 49 63 40 36 12 4 204 77 46 53 28 204 113 22 38 18 9 4 204 DATA TESTING AND ANALYSIS A second method was used to add greater depth and clarity to our definitions and understanding of transitioning to KAM through a year-long syndication with senior representative of seven mixed-industry companies with a strong track record of KAM (although not identified in this research for reasons of commercial sensitivity, some of these companies have previously been used as exemplars in other scholars work, including Yip and Bink 2007; Ryals and McDonald 2008 and Eccles et al. 2009). All were companies with established KAM programmes and they cooperated with the principle aim of identifying a process for implementing KAM that could be transferable across industries. They provided a 5-phase model of implementation running through Scoping KAM (Yr 1), Introducing KAM (Yr 2), Embedding KAM Davies and Ryals A stage model for transitioning to KAM 1035 (Yrs 2-4), Optimising KAM (Yrs 4-6), and Best Practice / Continuous Improvement (Yrs 6 and over). They were adamant that, across all their industries, it takes at least this long to have a properly-established KAM rogramme and that, especially in the later years, re-engineering KAM was always needed. They did however admit that the Scoping KAM period is a theoretical â€Å"ought to happen† stage as, in reality, it happens in parallel with, or even after, implementation. We therefore merge Scoping and Introducing KAM phases and show them as one initial 2 year Introducing KAM phase. These insights were used to segmen t data for analysis purposes and provide structure for demonstrating the process of transitioning to KAM. Analysis was conducted using mean comparison tests to identify differences between groups within the data. ANOVA assumes normality of data, which rarely occurs with Likert scales. Kolmogorow-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk normality tests demonstrated that 18 of the 25 elements of KAM distributions were probably not normal, mostly cause by -/+ kurtosis. However, visual inspection of the Normal QQ diagrams suggest that 20 of the elements appeared evenly distributed and 16 of the items passed the Levene test, again suggesting fairly even distribution. Bearing all these in mind we conducted and compared both Kruskal-Wallis H nonparametric and Games-Howell Post-Hoc ANOVAs as they both have reduced distribution assumptions. We found almost unilateral agreement between the two tests so report the more powerful and more easily interpreted Games-Howell Post-Hoc ANOVA. RESULTS The first important result from the data was the lack of significant differences based on industry. We found the only major area of difference amongst the four industry groups was in relation to how successful the respondents thought their companies were at KAM, with the professional and financial services companies rating themselves significantly higher and manufacturers significantly lower than the other groups. This suggests that at least the elements of KAM are similar across industries. The main area of difference however emerged when we segmented the data based on the timescales suggested by our transitioning syndicate, breaking the data into four groups based on the age of their programme (Table 4 shows the Games-Howell results for the elements of the KAM programme and Table 5 shows the success measures). We discovered that, as the syndicate had indicated, there was a general progression of gearing up and implementing, rejuvenating and expanding the KAM programme which provide a statistically significant ifference between groups in the different stages of transitioning to KAM. On the vast majority of scales the companies were implementing elements of KAM at a noticeably increasing rate over the life span of the programme. This indicates that, firstly, the programme takes many years to put in place and, secondly, that there is a progression through the different elements the organisation focuses on in each stage. Figure 1 synthesises what the syndicate said and what the data represent about the transition to KAM. Figure 1 (overleaf) shows KAM to be relatively slow to take off when introduced but then builds up rapidly during the Embedding and Optimising stage before slowing into a process of Continual Improvement. We also see this pattern replicated in Table 4 (overleaf) where the extent to which companies are implementing different elements of KAM is limited all the way up to the end of year two, but then begins to rise rapidly, before slowing after six years. The best example of this is Senior manager 1036 JMM Journal of Marketing Management, Volume 25 FIGURE 1 Transitioning to KAM summary High Revise program to new knowledge Restructure org. and processes Involve top Mgt. Redefine program Become customer centric Rejuvenate program Become more selective Expand knowledge in org. Continuous Improvement Capability Gear up Locate Champion Build the case Appoint KAMs Define KA’s Introducing KAM 1 2 Embedding KAM 3 4 Time (yrs) 5 6†¦ Train specialist KAMs Indiv customer plans . Targets and Measurement Optimising KAM Low buy-in (4th from bottom) where the average extent of buy-in within Introducing KAM companies is relatively low, before a significant (at the

Apply structural andinstitutional explanationsof the behaviorof Essay

Apply structural andinstitutional explanationsof the behaviorof AustriaHungary until 1914 - Essay Example Austria was a quasi-independent state in the Middle Ages within the Holy Roman Empire. The Habsburgs inherited the crown of Hungary with part of the Kingdom preserved from the Ottomans. The Ottomans were driven out of Hungary in 1669. Austria and Hungary were a personal union from1526 to 1848 under the Habsburgs (Fromkin, pp.11-16). Taking into consideration the status of the Hungarian Kingdom before the revolution, it can be seen that the kingdom was formally part of the Empire of Austria. Based on the Article of the year nineteen seventy, it was stipulated that the regnum independence with a separate Monarchy. The Empire of Austria had never lawfully included the Kingdom of Hungary. The policy was consistent with both public and constitutional law as discussed. The government of the Hungary Kingdom could be in a position of preserving a separate and independent budget since the begging of the personal union from 1527.The Hungarian budget was after the revolution of 1848 to 1849. The budget was independent too. Despite all these, the Kingdom of Hungary maintained its customs borders. The borders separated the Hungarian Kingdom from the other parts of the Habsburg ruled territories. The union had made a consent/agreement customs union between the Austrian and Hungarian where they were to negotiate in every ten years. The contracts were also renewed and signed by Budapest and Vienna at the end of every ten years since both countries hoped to get mutual economic benefit from their relationship (Fromkin, pp.11-16). Austria-Hungary also declared war on Serbia on July twenty-eight in the year 1914. Austria-Hungary made a step further to mobilize for plan B against Belgrade. There was the need for the warring governments to defend and explain their decision, with the Germans publishing a first set of diplomatic papers in early August. The propaganda machinery of the government supported the decisions that

Service Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Service Marketing - Essay Example From the report it is clear that a service is an activity or benefit that one party can offer to another which is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. In the goods continuum the distinction between products and services is far from clear as one traverses from tangibility to intangibility. The lack of distinction is particularly prominent mid way through this continuum where tangibility and intangibility may gel indistinguishably. However the fact remains that the tangibility dimension of the offering is a critical distinction and can identify a service offering. For instance, in a hotel stay once the stay has been completed nothing tangible is left with customer for preservation except experience, hence hotel stay is a typical person processing service offering. This study stresses that services are not physical. They can neither be possessed nor seen or felt. The tangible indicators of service are few, if any, and they are not good enough indicators to reduce consumer uncertainty. This increases the work of service marketers who must diligently determine how to effectively communicate the service process and the final outcome the consumer will receive -most importantly the quality. The production of the services can't be separated from its consumption. For instance, the production and consumption of a medical examination happen together. One can not store services for future use.

Lab Scale Preparation of Gypsum Wallboard

Lab Scale Preparation of Gypsum Wallboard STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND SIGNIFICANCE OF PROPOSED RESEARCH (State succinctly the problem which is to be addressed. Clearly outline the importance of the problem, the originality of the approach and the impact it may have on the field if successful. Give an overview of the broader significance as well as the immediate impact of this research.) The main purpose of this research is to create a gypsum wallboard with enhanced fire resistant property. Gypsum owns a property of combined water content, is a noncombustible and acts as effective fire proofing material. When heat from fire comes in contact with a plaster wall (or gypsum wallboard), it begins to lose combined water as steam thus making the hemihydrate form of gypsum (stucco) rehydrated and it reverts back to dihydrate. Wide range requirements such as fire resistant, increase moisture resistant can be achieved by the use of different calcining methods and additives. The wide applicability of gypsum is in construction. It is also used in the chemical industries In producing the fire resistant gypsum wallboards, the various properties of GWB like thermal, physical, chemical and mechanical characteristics are to be studied which plays a major role in controlling the spread of fire in buildings. Gypsum wallboard consists mainly of gypsum i.e. calcium sulfate dihydrate, CaSO4.2H2O. Calcium sulfate in nature is mostly available in two forms: Calcium sulfate dihydrate is commonly referred as gypsum, which is one of the oldest construction materials. It naturally occurs in sedimentary deposits from ancient sea beds. The most distinguishing feature of Gypsum is that it is moderately soluble in water at room temperature and exhibits a special feature of retrograde solubility i.e. gypsum becomes less soluble at elevated temperatures. Another form of calcium sulfate is the calcium sulfate anhydrite. At a temperature of 58 ËÅ ¡C Gypsum and Anhydrite coexist, also the anhydrite exhibits the strong retrograde property but it does not revert back to gypsum as its solubility decreases with increasing temperature. Gypsum wallboard is used to make interior walls and ceilings in residential and commercial applications that often require specific fire rated assemblies. Various types of gypsum wallboard are manufactured, with the most common variety and specialized varieties such as fire resistant, water resistant, and plaster lath. Combination of beta hemihydrates stucco, water and other additives form slurry which is used in the manufacture of the gypsum wallboard. Additives such as asphalt emulsion, vermiculite, chopped fiberglass and paper fiber impart to the wallboard characteristics such as water resistance, fire resistance and strength. The fire resistance property is mainly attributed to the absorption of energy related with the loss of hydrate water going from the dihydrate (CaSo4.2H2O) and from the hemihydrates to the anhydrous form (CaSo4). Impinging heat of gypsum wallboards initially operates to reverse the hydration reaction resulting in controlling the spread of fire and penetration of flame through set gypsum structures. Fire resistance can be achieved by using appropriate additives such as fiber, glass textile fibers, vermiculite, which expands when heated, which acts against the gypsum shrinkage. Because of its worldwide occurrence and huge potential reserves, however its uses are not considered basic to survival in a national emergency, gypsum is not considered a strategic mineral. This has permitted natural economic factors to prevail in the development of the mineral worldwide, which overall is a healthy situation that should continue to prevail. PLAN OF PROCEDURE (Outline the initial approach to the problem and its feasibility. Point out innovative features, relate it to previous work including pertinent references, and indicate how this plan may contribute to the solution of the broader problem proposed.) Gypsum manufacturing process consists of three main steps (1) rock preparation, (2) calcining and (3) formulating and manufacturing. Though we start with buying the gypsum material from one of the providers so the next important step ahead is the calcination process. Gypsum is usually referred to be CaSO4.2H2O. Calcium sulfate dIiydrate undergoes calcination to form hemihydrate (CaSO41/2H2O) or anhydrous form (CaSO4). Initially the calcination process was achieved by heating the raw gypsum material in an open environment, later on with the development in science calcination was achieved by heating the gypsum material in a kiln. Kinetic studies of calcination process plays an important role in determining the gypsum product parameters. We are interested in knowing the time, temperature and rate at which the calcination process can be achieved. Initially a small amount of the gypsum material is taken and X- Ray diffraction studies are conducted on it to know its composition i.e. CaSO4. 2H2O or CaSO41/2 H2O or CaSO4 .Later after determining the form of gypsum material, thermogravimetric studies (used for the determination of weight change at different temperatures and time) are conducted on the CaSO4.2H2O to determine the temperature and time required to convert from dihydrate form to hemihydrate and anhydrite form. Again the obtained product is first subjected to XRD and SEM studies to investigate the state of gypsum i.e. dihydrate, hemihydrate or anhydrous form. This can be studied by interpreting the obtained results with the earlier established results. Later gypsum powder is subjected to different temperatures at different time intervals to determine the time and temperature required for the calcination process to finish by using Thermogravimetric Analysis Instrument also Differential Scanning Calorimetry (which determines the melting and boiling temperatures) studies are also conducted to know the melting temperatures of the product Until now the calcination process is studied by using a very small amount of the sample in a laboratory environment, the obtained results from these experiments is used to correlate with the calcination process which is done in hot air oven by using a large amount of samples. The temperature obtained from the thermogravimetric studies is used as basis for the calcination process in hot air oven. These studies are done to know the reproducibility for large scale samples. This encompasses the first step in our research. The importance of these kinetic studies related to calcination is very useful to determine the conditions for achieving the hemi hydride from calcium sulfate which undergoes rehydration process i.e is addition of water molecules to the hemi hydride form to form the gypsum wallboard. Calcium sulfate hemihydrate (CaSO41/2H2O) or Calcium sulfate anhydrite (CaSO4) undergoes rehydration in the presence of water. Rehydration plays an important role as it allows to add the additives such as glass material, vermiculite etc. to the slurry which is referred as stucco. Chemically stucco is referred as the hemihydrate form of CaSO4. These additives are added to increase the fire resistant property in addition to the strength of the wallboards. The kinetic studies related to the rehydration process are studied similar to the calcination step. These kinetic studies gives us scope for better understanding the process of gypsum wallboard. i.e the amount of water required for rehydration and also the amount of additives that can be added to the gypsum mixture to retain the chemical stability of the gypsum composition required for the wallboard manufacturing. Similar to the first step this step is studied for the time, temperature and rate of reaction in the open environment and later in the laboratory environment by using kettle. In the kettle the hemihydrate and hydride forms of calcium are reacted with the water and the obtained product is subjected to the XRD and SEM studies to determine the state of product. This is the second step in our research. The final step in our research is the lab scale preparation of gypsum wallboard which involves the dihydrate form of calcium sulfate react with the sufficient amount of water to form slurry. Theoretically about 18.6 parts of water is required to react with the 100 parts of gypsum but to get a slurry, excess of water (about 80 to 85 parts) is reacted with 100 parts of gypsum. In this step water along with 10-30 wt. % of starch such as corn starch is added to obtain milk of starch. Next about 0.1 -1.5 wt.% of amolytic enzyme such as ÃŽ ± amylase based on the starch is added and heated to the decomposition point of the starch with stirring. After the heating is stopped enzyme deactivating agent based on the starch is added in the range of 0.8 to 1.0 wt. % and mixed with water to obtain a starch paste. To the prepared starch material the calcination product is added along with water and vermiculite, glass materials which improve the fire resistance property of the gypsum wallboard. This mixture is agitated in slow motion to obtain a slurry. This slurry form of gypsum is poured into a paper sheets such as paper boards. The edges of the paper is folded upwards to retain the slurry form of gypsum. The other end of the product is covered with another paper material which helps to retain the structure of the gypsum board. This mixture is subjected to heating by using hot air press which is useful to remove the excess water and to obtain a specific structure of the gypsum board. This process is continued until all the excess water is removed. It is dried in the temperature range of 50 ËÅ ¡C-200 ËÅ ¡C. Starch paste such as denatured starch and dextrin is used as an auxiliary adhesive to prevent calcination of the crystal of gypsum dihydrate and dehydrated to give a gypsum hemihydrate in drying at high temperatures. Also to prevent separation of the gypsum core member from both paper board, hardening modifier are added to the raw material of the gypsum core member. It is effective that starch paste along with water in the gypsum core member and both paper boards migrate during drying at high temperatures, and cover the crystal of gypsum dihydrate due to water retention capability of the starch paste which developed into the fiber of the paper boards so as to prevent the calcination and dehydration of the crystals. The obtained wallboard is subjected to different analytical techniques such as Thermogravimetric analysis, Thermomechanical analysis, XRD, SEM and Differential scanning calorimetry as discussed in the calcination and rehydration step. BUDGET AND BUDGET JUSTIFICATION LAB SCALE PREPARATION OF GYPSUM WALLBOARD: Materials and supplies: A minimum of 50 pounds of raw gypsum is required to make the gypsum wallboard and test its fire resistant property by adding the additives such as starch, dextrose, glass fibers. Initially a wallboard is made without adding any additives and for that about 5 pounds of the powder is used and tested for its properties. Similarly by adding the additives wallboard are made and tested for its properties. If the properties observed are similar to the standard fire resistant properties, variations in the additives is done and another wallboard is made to test for its fire resistant property. This procedure is followed until a wallboard with improved fire resistance is observed. REFERENC5 ASTM C1396/C1396 M-01. Standard specifications for gypsum board. ASTM International: West Conshohocken, PA, 2001. Yu, L.; Brouwers, J.H. Thermal properties and microstructure of gypsum board and its dehydration products: A theoretical and experimental investigation. Fire mater.2012, 36,575-589. Baux,C.; Melinge , Y.; Lanos , C.; Jauberthie,, R. Enhanced gypsum board panels for fire protection. J. Mater civil eng. 2008, 20, 71-77. Isa, K.; Oruno, H. Thermal decomposition of calcium sulfate dehydrate under self-generated atmosphere.Bull. Chem.Soc.Jpn. 1982, 55, 3733-3737. Borrachero, M.V.; Paya, J.; Bonilla,M.; Monzo, J. The use of Thermogravimetric analysis technique for the characterization of construction materials-The gypsum case. J.Therm.Anal.Cal.2008, 91, 503-509. Anderson, L.; Jannson, B. Analytical fire design with gypsum: Atheoretical and experimental study. Lund, Institute of Fire Safety design, 1987. Green, G.W,; Sundberg, D.G. Fire resistant gypsum- core wallboard. U.S.Patent 3,616,173.1971. Freyer, D.; Voigt.W. Crystallization and phase stability of CaSO4 and CaSO4 based salts. Monatsch chem.2003, 134, 693-719. Sultan, M.A.; Roy, P. Gypsum board fall off temperature in floor assemblies exposed to standard fires. 11th International fire science engineering conference, London, UK, 2007, 979-991. Thomas,G. Thermal properties of gypsum plaster board at high temperatures. Fire mater, 2006, 26, 37-45. Benichou, N.; Sultan, M.A. Thermal properties of light weight framed construction components at elevated temperatures. Fire Mater.2007, 31, 425-442. Wakili, G.k.; Hugi, E. Four types of gypsum plaster boards and their Thermophysical properties under fire condition. J.Fire Sci. 2009, 27, 27-43. Beard, A.; Carvel, R. The hand book of tunnel fire safety, ed.; Thomas Telford publishing; Heron Quay, London, 2005. Elliott, C. Plaster of Paris Technology. Chem. Trade J. 1923, 72, 725-726. Manzello, S.L.; Gann, R.G.; Kukkuck, S.R.; Lenhert,D.B. Influence of gypsum board type (X or C) on real fire performance of assemblies. Fire Mater.2007, 31,425-442. BUDGET AND BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 1

Prevention :: Environmental Economy Chemicals Essays

Prevention Prevention entails keeping all cleaning agents, gasoline, paints, glues, thinners, and other household products in locked or inaccessible cabinets. These products should never be used in closed spaces, and areas should be extensively aired out after product use. Even with adequate room ventilation, it is probably prudent to avoid exposing children altogether (see case 4, below). Tell parents to avoid bringing children to nail salons and to keep children out of newly remodeled rooms that may be off-gassing solvents from carpet and wallpaper glues. Dry-cleaning should be aired out in the yard or an open garage for one day before being brought into the house, and car windows should be open when transporting freshly dry-cleaned clothes. w). As in the home, art supplies used at school should be nontoxic. "Acceptable Children's Art and Craft Materials," a list of 2,500 nontoxic art materials, is available from the California Department of Health Services.34 Clinicians must be alert to pare nts who might be exposing their children to solvents in the home though a number of hobbies, including silk-screening, furniture restoration, model building, and illegal drug labs (an increasing problem in certain communities).35 Finally, children should be screened during the well-child interview for any drug abuse, including the use of "legal" substances such as solvents. The best way to dispose of solvents is to use them up as intended. Otherwise, solvents should be treated as hazardous waste and disposed through a licensed hazardous waste handler.36 † The interesting thing about this advice to try to avoid any contact with chemicals in our life is that it is impossible. If a breast fed baby is not able to avoid toxins, none of us are. For a day, I made a point to read the labels of products I used and food I ate. I found that most of the ingredients I could not pronounce and had no idea why it was in the product or what it did. I also learned that most of what I use and consume contains either high fructose corn syrup or sodium laureth sulfate or sodium lauryl sulfate. I do not think that is necessarily good but I only hope it isn’t really bad. From Now with Bill Moyers, transcript: MOYERS: Of the 3000 or so high production volume chemicals in use in this country today only 43% have been even minimally tested. Only about 10 percent have been thoroughly tested to examine their potential effects on body part was getting set up on that day of development.