Public praise on blogs - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 11 Words: 3171 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Public Praise on Blogs: An investigation into its impact on brand advertising and customers purchasing decision-making in Chinese business market The Aims AND Objectives The proposed research is expected to produce an insight into the role performed by public praise and its impact on purchasing decisions. Web blogging is a new-marketing approach emerged only ten years (Dyrud, Worley and Quible, 2005). It enables business executives and traders to create and develop their own brand advertising and pose an impact on how purchasing decisions are made. The previous studies on the influence of the public praise are mostly concentrated on personally verbal exchanges (Wright, 2006, p. 46), but the current research will focus on the public praise by blogs and their influence in Chinese customers. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Public praise on blogs" essay for you Create order The overall aims of the investigation are to demonstrate how the reliability and underlying impacts of public praise on blogs intervene in the brand advertising and purchasing decision-making of Chinese customers. The research objectives are listed as follows. Assess the influence of public praise through blogs in Chinese business market; Infer how public praise on blogs can be further improved in China; Explore what extent Chinese customers trust these blogs; Discuss the degree to which public praise effects Chinese consumers purchasing decision-making; Examine the degree of public praise that influences brand advertising in China (focusing on two groups of people: having a preference or not for specific brands). Peoples opinions on blogs will be collected to help learn how brand advertising and the purchasing decision-making are influenced by the power of public praise, so that I can acquire sufficient data for review. The outcomes of this proposed research will also aim to provide facts on Chinese public praise on blogs. The Context Of The Proposed Research Since people have written down their thoughts and share them through spoken communication, the public praises have emerged. They are depicted as a view-spread from peoples mouths or word-of-mouth (Christiansen and Tax, 2000, p. 185). Public praise is a strong traditional item in Chinese culture and plays a very important part in Chinese consuming notions. Nowadays, it is recognized as a powerful marketing instrument to support the sales of both tangible and intangible commodities to customers. When marching into the knowledge era, public praise is drawing more attention by people than traditional methods of distributing information. Many printed formats have been transformed to electronic forms published on the websites and blogs (Keng and Ting, 2008). The universal application of Internet is growing rapidly. With a pointer and click button, people can convey and receive information. In fact, it offers an opportunity for prospective customers to gain relevant information about their potential purchasing from various sources: through individual communication with different people who used to be strange but had knowledge of the corresponding articles. This proposed research will specifically discuss the functions of blogging as a platform for marketing and purchasing in China. A Preliminary Literature Review The Development Of Blogs In Marketing Before the emergence of Internet, people were seeking information about a particular purchase either in person or in words to their familiar people. It is the traditionally face-to-face marketing. The development of the Internet means that web communications have become attainable and presented a convenient way for information exchange. A potential buyer has only to input the brand or product name to online search engines. Then, diverse forms of online information providers like websites, blog or forum will give him/her the relevant information. Recently, consumers are becoming progressively aware of the articles displayed on blogs. Bloggers prefer to share their experiences in blogs. Accordingly, these blogs become the information exchange media of consumers. This sort of media gradually develops a tendency for consumers to seek information about new products or brands through blogs. According to the recent results of Neilsons research (2007), about 80% of global consumers allege that they are ready to accept and trust the suggestions of other people for commodities and services. In addition, around 90% of individual future buyers in China depend on recommendations from other buyers. Although blogs have developed into an advanced tool for merchandising, it is still not a corporate domain investigated by many investigators (Bokaie, 2008, p. 17). This research aims to fill this gap. The information exchange online is composed of various actions, such as uploading, downloading, balloting and participating. For businessmen, whether it is beneficial to invest in online advertising via blogs becomes a serious issue for consideration (p. 17). Nevertheless, there is no existing research on this matter to answer their inquiries. With this in mind, the proposed research attempts to reveal the factors that can have impacts on brand advertising and purchasing decision-making. Purchasing Decision-Making The decision-making in purchase links to consumers determination of buying. It is also related to their response after receiving the advice of marketing (Chang and Wildt, 1994). Customers decision-making in purchasing is highly correlated to their perceptions of charge and benefit in commodities (Hubl and Trifts, 2000, p. 6). Hence, it should be more accurately regarded as an aspiration rather than a taste. It has also searched for recognising why knowledge of different products and brands substantially impacts a buyers decision-making. The existing literature makes evident that public praise has a visible impact on consumer-purchasing behaviour (Christiansen and Tax, 2000). Customer satisfaction is widely recognized to be a crucial effect for a consumers future decision-making. Satisfied consumers will share their positive experiences with others and provide praise for advertising. By contrast, discontented customers incline to change their decisions and engage in negative feedbacks on advertising. From the above phenomena, it can be seen that public praise is an effective manner allowing consumers to reduce the time and perceived risks for decision because it can provide the detailed information about products or services. Thus clearly, public praise is a means of avoiding risks when purchasing and also a method of obtaining favourable or adverse knowledge on commodities, so that customers can make a valuable buying decision. Hypotheses Based on the aims and preliminary literature review, I deem the following hypotheses are my research focus. H1: Trust of public praise in blogs can pose a positive impact on brand advertising and purchasing decision-making. H2: The influence of public praise in blogs will have a positive impact on brand advertising and purchasing decision-making. H3: For brand supporters, trust of public praise on blogs can create a favourable impact on brand advertising and purchasing decision-making. H4: For brand supporters, the impacts of public praise on blogs will be beneficial in brand advertising and purchasing decision-making. Methodology And Sources Of Data Methodology Considerations Two research approaches will be used in this study. The first is a deductive approach, which is a well-established method for analysing the existing theories to describe certain phenomena (Gallaire, Minker and Nicolas, 1984, p. 153). It can also predict whether theories are expected to develop and allow the possibility of their altering in the future. The second is an inductive approach, which aims to establish a theoretical framework based on the empirical study (Thomas, 2003). This method can be used in conjunction with the deductive approach. The leading concern of this proposed study is the impact of public praise blogs on brand advertising and purchasing decision-making in the Chinese market. Consequently, it should concentrate mainly on understanding customers dispositions and gaining insight into customer behaviors linked to public praise. A deductive approach will be adopted for analysing the consequences of the statistical reviews. The data and any possible future tendencies for public praise blogs will be tested simultaneously based on the relevant theories. I attempt to design a concise questionnaire for Chinese blog writers and also their readers to complete, so that I am able to evaluate how public praise is spread by blogs and how it influences the consumers perceptions of brands and their purchasing decisions when they are considering what to buy. Additionally, this research intends to clarify the relationship between public praise, brand advertising and the customers purchasing decision-making. This research studies will take trust and influence as independent variables. Two dependent variables are brand advertising and purchasing decision-making. Brand supporters and non-brand supporters are the main focus groups in this research. The conceptual framework related to these variables will be presented in a model form. Apart from this, interpretive research will allow me to investigate and illustrate the relationships between variables, especially the cause-and-effect one. What is more, employing the survey strategy for the collection of data is appropriate here for hypothesis testing, and it is more useful in a quantitative context the nature of the proposed study. There are three formats of question outline which can be applied in this survey. The first is nominal in nature. The replies to these questions are only yes/ no or true/false, which are predictable and very friendly in statistical analysis. The second requires respondents to use a five-point scale with the extreme ones matching strongly agree or strongly disagree. The third form is multiple options. All respondents are expected to sort out no more than three choices. Sampling Considerations Sampling design commences by defining the target population (Emory, 1980). This is a collection of elements or objects that hold the data searched by the investigators and with respect to which conclusions are to be drawn (Korn and Graubard, 1991). A non-probability sampling method will be adopted for this research because I have many suspicions about the practicality of the approach of employing a mixed interview group. Particularly, convenience sampling will be considered in this study and the surveys will be retrieved online by around 200 Chinese consumers (both blog writers and readers) who were selected randomly. The sample selection is ended when the sample size for pilot study has been obtained. Although this technique of sampling is widely used, it is likely to introduce bias and its influences can be beyond control. However, for a wide-ranging questionnaire survey, it is the simplest sampling strategy to collect reliable data. Data Collection In order to guarantee the reliability, validity and integrity of this study and avoid possible difficulties, the survey will be piloted on a group of ten Chinese blog users (5 males and 5 females), aged from 20 to 35. They will evaluate the validity and clarity of the entire framework and the inquiries of the survey. The question outline will be set in the three types I mentioned in the section of Methodology considerations, which can allow the respondents to reply following the instructions and regulations as principals without the probability of being an unstable or unpredictable response. This research concentrates on blog users in China and the review procedures are according to the application of a questionnaire offering a sample of the target population. The survey is employed to infer the relationship between public praise, brand advertising and the customers purchasing decision-making. It is possible to collect the associated facts by either empirical or library-based studies. With regard to this proposed research, the survey asks respondents several sets of questions to explore their opinions about Chinese bloggers and their subscribers. The survey will be retrieved using an online survey website and people from all walks of life will be encouraged to fill it out and forward the survey information to their acquaintances. The convenience of arranging an Internet group to complete the questionnaire is the greatest benefit of carrying out a question-based investigation online. Furthermore, the speed of response is relatively fast and the research expenditure is rel atively low because I do not need to encounter printing, paper or stamp costs. The questionnaire will be separated into four sections. Section one refers to individual data linked to the websites and blogs. The aim of the queries in this part is to conclude the respondents using habits related to the websites and blogs and to comprehend the principal incentive of web users both as blog subscribers and bloggers. Section two is to determine how public praise in blogs affects brand advertising and purchasing decision-making by concentrating on responsibility, strength, disposition and effect correlated to public praise in blogs. Section three deals, particularly, with how the consumers shared knowledge with other people by means of blogs influences their purchasing decision-making. Section four further collects the individual information. Secondary data are also applicable to giving contextual knowledge and academic support relevant to the empirical inquiry, the questions adopted and hypothesis formulation. In addition, it is normally the situation that documentary data has been summarised intentionally other than their applications in prompt research. There has also been a study of any existing documents linking to public praise, blogs, brand advertising and purchasing decision-making. Therefore, this research has comprised the use of periodicals, archives and online articles. All these resources will be explored and analysed. Even so, the enquiry of documents can certainly not be sufficient to support the proposed study. For this reason, it has been indispensable to collect primary data for this research. Data Analysis The data sets collected from questionnaires will be processed by statistical analysis. Statistics is a group of approaches and theories that can be employed to quantitative data when making judgements in the aspect of doubtfulness. Quantitative analysis methods help to compose plain charts or figures that indicate the frequency of event via setting up statistical associations between variables and complicated statistical models (Bernard, 1996, p. 24). Quantitative analysis enables the figures collected from the survey to be transcribed into diagrams and graphs, which gives the figures comprehensibility and makes it easier to grasp. The proposed study will use quantitative analysis and display results from the survey through statistical analysis with investigating the connection between the variables. Employing this means, it is likely to examine the association between public praise, brand advertising and customers purchasing decision-making, and display the results in unsophisticate d diagrams. When I finish gathering all the required information through online questionnaires, the unprocessed data will be coded into variable divisions using statistical analysis. The validity and accuracy of the data need to be confirmed before the hypothesis testing. In this situation, it may be essential to think about the correctness or faulty of hypotheses because they can be refused based on the testing results. The research will use the software SPSS to verify the research hypotheses. SPSS is usually applied by those scholars or investigators who involved in the social sciences, such as the fields of policy and educational research. The proposed project will be used to analyze the outcomes and identify factors that have been influenced by variables, so that the validity of the hypothesis can be proved. This research will first use descriptive statistics to analyze personal information, including all sorts of reliable variables. Subsequently, regression and one-way ANOVA analysis may be adopted to verify the four hypotheses. Research Limitations The research sample is initially randomly selected from my acquaintances in China, which may comprise the first inadequacy. Moreover, that the samples are all from the 20-35 identical age group also introduces some bias. It is rational to deduce that such a confined age group may have related experiences and attitudes linked to the matters scrutinized in this research. In this case, it is likely to affect the research outcomes and overall quality. The number of participants involved in the proposed research is also likely to be too small to show the sample representativeness. Furthermore, because the entire empirical stage will be processed online, it may be unattainable for me to have any in human liaison with the participants. As a result, it may be unlikely to examine whether the personal information is in detail or not. The participants will give their replies on the web survey. When they read it online, they may change some of their answers intentionally. Ethical Considerations The proposed research will follow the ethical guidelines of business studies based on the code of ethics for author in Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) (2007). I will contact with my friends and acquaintances to obtain their permissions to complete my web survey. Also, the researcher stance should be considered. I need to be an outsider of their questionnaire completion. What is more, the guidelines suggest some items in relation to protection of individual privacy, such as informed consent, the right to withdraw, protecting the anonymity, participant reviews of data and so forth. Although the targeted blog users will be encouraged to engage in the study, it should be clear that they are not forced to fill in the online questionnaire and they may thus choose withdraw their answers. When I post my questionnaire survey online, I will write a general introduction about my background and interests to the respondents. Then, inform them in written form about my purpose of t he survey and my general intentions regarding the research. I will also welcome their questions left on my research blog, and answer them honestly. In order to protect the respondents anonymity, aliases will be used for all involved blog writers and readers as soon as the data are transcribed. Anticipated Outcomes The anticipated outcomes are expected to effectively test all the listed hypotheses and achieve the aims of the proposed research. As I mentioned before, although public praise as distributed by the Cyberspace has come to be a prevailing marketing instrument, it has not been considerably scrutinized yet. The main results of this proposed research will try to clarify the relationship between public praise, brand advertising and purchasing decision-making. The outcomes will be capable of implying fresh thoughts to firms when they intend to engage in public praise spreading in order to improve the positive effect of their brands and encourage purchasing in consumers. Bibliography Bernard, H. (1996), Qualitative Data, Quantitative Analysis. Cultural Anthropology Methods Journal, 8 (1), 23-26. Bokaie, J. (2008), Corporations get Personal: A growing number of company chiefs are bypassing copywriters to speak direct to consumers. Marketing, pp. 17. Chang, T.-Z. and Wildt, A. (1994), Price, Product Information, and Purchase Intention: An empirical study. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 22 (1), 16-27. Christiansen, T. and Tax, S. (2000), The Questions of Who and When to Measure the Word of Mouth. marketing communications, 6, 185-199. Dyrud, M., Worley, R. and Quible, Z. (2005), Blogs: A Natural in Business Communication Courses. Business Communication Quarterly, 68, 73-76. Emory, W. (1980), Business Research Methods. Irwin: Homewood. Gallaire, H., Minker, J. and Nicolas, J.-M. (1984), Logic and Databases: A Deductive Approach. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) 16 (2), 153-185. Hubl, G. and Trifts, V. (2000), Consumer Decision Making in Online Shopping Environments: The Effects of Interactive Decision Aids. Marketing Science, 19 (1), 4-21. JIBS. (2007), Code of Ethics. [Online]. Available at: https://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/jibs_ethics_code.html. Last accessed 07/09/2009. Keng, C.-J. and Ting, H.-Y. (2008), The Acceptance of Blogs:Using a Customer Experiential Value Perspective (pp. 1-13). Taipei. Korn, E. and Graubard, B. (1991), Epidemiologic studies utilizing surveys: accounting for the sampling design. American Journal of Public Health, 81 (9), 1166-1173. Neilson, B. (2007), Consumer-Generated Media in the Age of the Web-Fortified Consumer. [Online]. Available at: https://www.nielsenbuzzmetrics.com/whitepapers. Last accessed 06/09/2009. Thomas, D. (2003), A General Inductive Approach for Qualitative Data Analysis: University of Auckland. Wright, J. (2006), Blog Marketing: The revolutionary new way to increase sales, build your brand, and get exceptional results. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Nutella Makes Up for Cocoa Shortage During World War II

The period was World War II there was a shortage of cocoa at the time; Mr. Pietro Ferrero, a pastry maker founder of the Ferrero company thought that using hazelnuts and mixing it with skim milk and a little of chocolate would be a good way to appease the short supply of cocoa by allowing chocolate to last longer. This still being the product’s two main ingredients today; hazelnut and cocoa. In Italy, during the 1940s; Mr. Ferrero created the Nutella spread. In its earliest form, Nutella a hazel nut and chocolate spread was originally called â€Å"pasta Gianduja† this of course was the Italian term, â€Å"pasta† means paste and the â€Å"Gianduja† was the name of a famous character in the region in Italy. The paste was first introduced by being made in the loaves of bread wrapped in tinfoil, used to make sandwiches. A product popular to children, the bread was tossed away and the paste was most favored. Later workers decided it would be best if the spread was made easier to spread on the bread then being known as â€Å"Supercrema Gianduja†, thus being processed in large jars with a yellow sticker on the middle and a red lid. Soon after in 1964 â€Å"Pasta Gianduja† or â€Å"Supercrema Gianduja† the product was named Nutella: â€Å"nut† being the origin of the product and â€Å"ella† a soft Italian term. Nutella rapidly became popular among Italy. Just 25 years ago, in 1983 the Ferrero Company introduced the product to the United States market and it was first imported to the Northeastern part of America andShow MoreRelatedEvaluation of Nutella Marketing Strategy5072 Words   |  21 PagesAn Evaluation of Nutella Marketing Strategy of 2012 with the view to improvement. From: Natalia Muranska To: Peter McPherson Date: List of Contents: Introduction †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 5 Procedure †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦....... 5 Findings History †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6 Marketing concept ............................................................................... 7 History .......................................................................

Performance And Compensation Management Of Woolworths †Free Samples

Question: Analyze The Issues In The Performance And Compensation Management Of Woolworths? Answer: Introduction Performance and compensation are two most important variables in the organization for the betterment of the company as well as the employees. Any issue on these grounds would be detrimental for the growth of the company in some way or the other. Performance issue and compensation issues are mostly related to each other in some way or the other. Performance problems are often caused due to problems in management, workplace condition, policies and other issues. There can be various performance issues such as missing targets, unhappy customers and others. On the other hand, compensation issues can be unpaid overtime work, salary problems, incentive problems and others. An organization can face these issues from employees and management (Sangwan 2015). The report discusses about the compensation and performance problems in Woolworths supermarket in Australia. It further analyses the reason and need for improvement of these problems. Lastly, a recommendation is given by which the company can solve the problem in its work environment. Background of the Company Woolworths is a well-known supermarket in Australia that sells grocery and operates store chain in the country. It operates as a duopoly in the Australian market by joining hands with Coles. This helped the company to take up 80 percent Australian market in the past years. It offers various types of groceries such as vegetables, fruits, packed foods and others. However, the company is also involved in selling other items such as household goods, baby products and others. Thus, the supermarket involves itself in selling all kinds of goods to the customers in order to cover wide range of market. Currently the company is operating 1000 stores all over Australia, which are divided into 968 supermarkets, and 19 stores (NewsComAu 2017). It is considered as the second largest retailer in Australia because of its expansion all over the country. The company also has 202,000 employees working under them in various departments, which has also helped the organization to grow from the day it has launched in the market. To motivate the employees the company also offers rewards and recognition from to encourage the employees to perform their best and provide maximum business to the customers (Pc.gov 2017). These rewards help the organization to measure the performance of the employees according to the set objectives to each one of them. The rewards are given to the employees through various types of elements such as salary, incentives, career growth, promotions, and awards for extra efforts and Annual CEO Awards. The compensation includes the items that are offered to the employees based on their performance. However, the employees had to meet the targets give by the company on a monthly basis to get such rewards. Thus, the compensation pattern and performance of the employee are interdependent on each other in Woolworths. However, the company is facing various challenges and problems in the performance and compensation management system from past few years. This is because o f various reasons offered by the customers as well as the organization itself. Performance Management and Compensation Issue Companies nowadays face many issues in their performance and compensation structure. The issue in performance comes from the lack in show in the employee in such as unachieved targets, lack of customer dealing and others. However, sometimes the performance of the employees goes down due to issues in compensation management. Some of the organization does not pay the employees according to their performance. They remain underpay or work for extra hours without any incentives (Adeoye and Fields 2014). This reduces the enthusiasm in the employees to give their full potential and perform nicely. Woolworths is recently facing many problems in the performance of their employee in most of its stores. The lack of performance in stores is evitable due to lack of customer satisfaction and reduction in revenue of the company. This is causing a decrease in the revenue of the company. Moreover, the company is also facing issues in its employee compensation management, which was seen in the organiz ation as most of the staffs are unpaid for overtime work and are exploited by the managers. This has demotivated the employees to work and offer their full potential in sales and targets (Gupta and Shaw 2014). Analysis of the Issue The issue in the performance management department in Woolworths was seen in the year 2012 when approximately 3000 staffs in 200 stores of the company was redundant about the payout that was offered to other employees in the stores. They missed the protective award that was given to the employees. This leads to demotivation in the staffs to perform well for the organization. Such an incident has put a negative effect on the performance of the employees in these stores. This is shown in the expectancy theories of compensation in which it is stated that if the employees are offered by an extra reward or compensation for the work that they have done, it helps them in performing high in the near future (NewsComAu 2017). Similarly, a nonpayment of reward leads to underperformance of the employees in the organization. Thus, according to expectancy theories rewards and performance are related to each other in an organization and in order to achieve success in the market the company needs to overcome the issues coming from both the grounds (Van Dooren et al. 2015). Further, the expectancy theory focuses on other factors that are necessary for getting good compensation from the company such as behavior, motivation and outcomes (Howard et al. 2016). Similar things happened in Woolworths in which employees showed very low performance by not meeting their sales targets. This has lead to lowering customer satisfaction and lowering income of the company. The issues that the company is facing in case of performance management can be related to the Goal Setting Theory. According to this theory, setting a monthly or weakly goal for the employees in the company can motivate them to offer superior performance (Locke and Latham 2013). This can be judged on the ground that the employees with some goals continuously try to meet that goal which leads to better performance. Woolworths follow the same strategy in their organization; however, they failed to meet the desired goals. These are the two most important issues that the company faces in its organization recently, which is inter-related, to each other. This means an improvement in one factors might automatically lead to improvement in other issue. Need for Improvement Performance and compensation are two most important attributes of an organization as it helps in its continuous growth. An organization facing issues with these two factors will never be able to grow at the rate that it expects its organization to be in a year. Thus, it is important for the organization to get rid of such issues in their management. This is because performance allows the organization to attain advantage in whatever they are doing and fight away tough completion that it is facing. Similarly, improving the performance of the employees, Woolworths will be able to offer tough competition to other competitors that exist in the supermarket industry of Australia. On the other hand, compensation management is yet another important thing a company needs because it is the only way it can motivate the employees (Budworth et al. 2015). Thus, it is important for Woolworths to take care of the compensation issues that they are facing. This is because lack of compensation will auto matically lead to poor performance and a chain of negative affect will lead to the downfall of the company. These factors show that it is necessary for the organization to improve the issues that it is facing in these two departments. Compensation has a lot of benefits on the employees and on the organization that shows its importance. Some of the reasons behind solving the issues arising from compensation are that it facilitate the organization to recruit employees in the organization, help to motivate the employee, increase employee retention and abides with the compensation laws. Thus, these benefits are enough for the organization to improve the issues that it is facing in the compensation management (Elnaga and Imran 2013). Employee performance also holds similar importance in the organization because it decides the overall growth of the business. Thus, Woolworths also needs to maintain both that issues that has arisen. Even though Woolworths is facing a lot of problem in its compensation management, yet there were various evidences that shows that the company offered some of the best remuneration policy to its employees. The remuneration includes both short term and long-term incentive plan for its employees (Pc.gov 2017). Short-term incentive plans suggested that the incentives are offered based on performance and is designed to improve the quality of performance that the employees are offering. On the other hand, long-term incentives were offered by the company to motive, retain the existing employees of the business, and help in value creation. The incentive in this case depends on the level of growth the company is achieving over time (Schultz and Schultz 2015). This shows that Woolworths has the potential of offering incentives to its employees and should thus try to improve the issues that they are facing in order to operate as it used to be in the past. Recommendation for Improvement In order to improve the condition of the business it is necessary that the company carry out certain steps to improve the performance and compensation issues that it is facing. The steps that the company can follow in order to improve the performance of the employees are: The company should not be afraid of discussing its motives and goals with its employees. Accordingly, it should give responsibilities to the employees so that they feel connected with the organization and perform its best. Secondly, the organization should distribute the task of the store among the employees according to their skills and behavior so that they can handle the task with the best possible expertise. For example, it should allow staffs that are extrovert to handle the sales department, as they will be able to deal with the customers very well. Thirdly, the goals of the organization should be clear in front of the employees so that they are ready for the consequences that they might faces if they fail to meet the goals (Schultz and Schultz 2015). Fourthly, offering incentive to the employees is the most beneficial way in which the company can motivate the employee to perform well. Incentives can be monetary and on-monetary benefits. This also acts like a reward for the employee that performs very well and motivates other non-performing employees. Lastly, offer regular training to the employees according to their monthly performance will add to the organizational growth. Training can also be provided while incorporating new system in the organization. This will help the employees to keep up to date with the changing systems. Thus, it can be seen that Woolworths can solve both its issues by following these steps. This is because both the issues are inter-related such as an improvement in the compensation system of the company will motivate the employees to work well. However, there are other steps too that can be used by the company such as training and others to improve performance other than just increasing compensations. Conclusion From the above analysis about the performance and compensation issue faced by Woolworth it can be deduced that the issue in these two departments prove to be detrimental for the companys growth. This makes it necessary for the organization to get rid of these issues and attain maximum growth. Two main issues that is seen in Woolworths are under performance of the employees that has lead to low customer satisfaction and under payment to some of the employees of the organization. these two problems can be resolved if the company focuses on offering employees with good incentive plan so that they feel motivated and perform their best. However, it can also solve the issues that other way round in which it can improve the performance of the employee by offering training and targets and in turn improve their compensation pattern. References Adeoye, A.O. and Fields, Z., 2014. Compensation management and employee job satisfaction: A case of Nigeria.Journal of Social Sciences,41(3), pp.345-352. Budworth, M.H., Latham, G.P. and Manroop, L., 2015. Looking forward to performance improvement: A field test of the feedforward interview for performance management.Human Resource Management,54(1), pp.45-54. Elnaga, A. and Imran, A., 2013. The effect of training on employee performance.European Journal of Business and Management,5(4), pp.137-147. Gupta, N. and Shaw, J.D., 2014. Employee compensation: The neglected area of HRM research.Human Resource Management Review,24(1), pp.1-4. Howard, L.W., Turban, D.B. and Hurley, S.K., 2016. Cooperating teams and competing reward strategies: Incentives for team performance and firm productivity.Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management,3(3). Locke, E.A. and Latham, G.P. eds., 2013.New developments in goal setting and task performance. Routledge. NewsComAu. 2017.The system of work left our client vulnerable to injury. [online] Available at: https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/woolworths-worker-wins-230000-compensation/news-story/ab6faa0f7af86bf9c53585290a0c483b [Accessed 1 Nov. 2017]. Pc.gov.au. 2017.Remuneration report. [online] Available at: https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/executive-remuneration/submissions/sub091-part2.pdf [Accessed 1 Nov. 2017]. Sangwan, S., 2015. IMPACT OF COMPENSATION MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON EMPLOYEES PERFORMANCE IN PRIVATE SECTOR BANKS. Schultz, D. and Schultz, S.E., 2015.Psychology and work today 10E. Routledge. Van Dooren, W., Bouckaert, G. and Halligan, J., 2015.Performance management in the public sector. Routledge.

Strategic Information Systems Environmental Relationship

Question: Discuss about theStrategic Information Systemsfor Environmental Relationship. Answer: Introduction According to Remenyi, (2010), Reponen, (2013), and Sprowls, (2014) a strategic information system is any information system that can change the process, goals, product, environmental relationship, and services at level of an organization to give an organization a competitive edge over its competitors. Moreover, Peterson and Saunders outlined that any decision concerning information system strategy cannot solely depend on the information collected from professional in the field of management information system. In addition to this, Benova and Gregus, (2009) state that management of information system cannot be focused on individuals aspects such as record keeping, accounting, and reduction and control of cost. Ideally, it is a necessity for managers to have a deeper understanding of information systems strategies in order to help in integrating information systems with the business strategies of the organizations (Corbit et al., 2008). Nonetheless, understanding of information systems can help the managers compare their system with that of their competitors in order to achieve full efficiency of the systems. According to Ankit (2016), the sole purpose of information system is to maximize the effectiveness of business strategies of an organization. Ideally, information systems are effective in reducing the cost of production, increasing production effectiveness; revolutionize the face of products and services in order to enhance the competitive advantage of an organization. This report presents an analysis of strategy information systems, its basic system, and business requirements, and how Disk4U can analyze their needs, select an appropriate software to integrate with its business strategies to meets their demands, and gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. Gartner and Porter, (2016) used the concept of value management to evaluate the kind of value each process can add to the products and services of an organization. Moreover, Hemmartfar et al., (2010) believes that product and services of an organization determine the primary objectives of an organization. In addition to this, Gartner and Porter (2016) stated that the major problem that companies face in the current business environment is to maintain their competitive advantage. Nonetheless, according to Turban et al., (2009) implementation of an information system is a complex task because the complex nature of the information systems. Moreover, the main purpose of strategic information systems is to establish a sustainable and profitable position in the market and create an opposing force to the forces that determine the competition of the market. Hemmatfar et al., (2010) asserts that information systems should allow a company enhance its competitive differentiation coupled with co st leadership that gives a company sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, Pearlson and Saunders (2010) argue that information systems must possess the ability of a strategic weapon that can enable a company gain competitive advantage, come up with new ways of management, enhance performance and productivity, and diversify their goods and services. This implies that the use of information systems in managerial and strategic activities is of importance than use in operational contexts. Having mention that is important to point out the effects of improper use of information systems within an organization. Moreover, it is important to understand the different aspects of the organization before adopting an information system. In this regard, the Information System Strategy Triangle (ISST) framework is essential in understanding the dynamics of information systems within an organization and how they can be aligned to concur with the objectives and practices of the organization. This is because the ISST framework outlines the relationship between the business strategies and the information system strategies within an organization. Ideally, an organization strategy and information system strategy are driven by the strategies of the business. Moreover, these strategies have a mutual relationship and they must concur in their operations for maximum sustainability. However, it is important to note that failure to understand the relationship between the three strategies can have detrimental effects on the business. This is because any change in the business strategy can have a negative effect on information system strategy. According to Hemmatfar et al., (2010) information systems play a vital role in financial and non-financial issues and in business operations aspects like decision making within an organization. Thus, the managers are required to make decisions with an integration of the information system and organizational decision by considering the capabilities of resources within an organization. Business Process Disk4U is a company that sells CDs and Vinyl records and is based in Sydney. The company operates in four small outlets in the Sydney metropolis. Moreover, the company sells its products through via physical front shop, mail, phone orders, and a recently opened online channel. In addition to this, the company relies on manual accounting since it started. However, with the recent expansion in business activities the company must automate its accounting system for maximum efficiency. Moreover, automation can help the company achieve its full potential and increase its market share through efficient process and customer services. Disk4U Company is a distribution company that deals with distribution of CDs and Vinyl records. Thus, the company has different stages of administration and information that is available at these stages. In the accounting section, the business has the requirements for the directors, managers, and the cashiers in contact with the clients. Moreover, an automated system will require different levels of access within the system of the company. In addition to this, there is need to reduces the number of process involved in cash handling. Having mention that is important to point out that the company has four different stores that are managed at one central place. Thus, it is important to select an accounting software that can incorporate the financial records of the four different stores to increase efficiency. Strategic information systems offer a variety of services to business, as discussed above these services entails gaining competitive advantage, and revolutionizing the production of goods and services within an organization among other factors. However, it is important to select an information system that meets the demands of the business and can integrate easily into the business strategies. Thus, it is important for a business to assess its process and ascertain the right type of information system that can meet and revolutionize the demands of the organization. According to Worden, (2016) the selection and evaluation phase is an important process that can enable an organization to achieve long-term efficiency. Thus, the first phase of selecting an information system for Disk4U Company is assessing the business process of the company. Assessing Business Process In this phase, the company determines which process within the company are working well and which ones are not working as per their expectations. Moreover, at this phase the company ascertain which process are working well and those that require improvements. The business process can be analysed using the following questions; Is the availability or lack of reports hinder the decision making process within the company? Does the company have any industry specific requirements apart from the ones handled by the current system? Is the data of the company available on the web or via mobile devices and is the availability affecting the success of the company in any way. In other words is the availability of such information benefit the company in any way. Is the productivity of the employees affected by the current system and is there any direct benefit of making the employees more productive. Is the system available flexible that is, is the system able to adapt with new and complex business processes as the company expands. Is the spread of key information available throughout the company and does the availability of such information affect the productivity of the company. Can the available system cope with the current business needs? Does the current system underperform, Does the company use manual systems such as double entry, and use of spreadsheets? Does the company struggle to comply with industry specific requirements and does the company spend a lot on manual auditing and reporting? Does the production of financial statements consume a lot time and is it error prone, and does the company performs inter-company transaction with ease and is it efficient. Ideally, these questions can be answered using a SWOT analysis of the company. This can help identify the weakness and strength of the company and help identify the proper information systems. Moreover, this can help an organization realize the benefits and importance of fitting an information system versus the return on investment. Nonetheless, the analysis can help an organization ascertain the benefits if improving employee efficiency versus fitting a new information system and can help the organization choose an appropriate information system. In addition, these questions can help in creating a needs analysis from different departments of the company. The company can achieve this through assigning the managers of different departments and stores to analysis the stores and departments and outline what their departments and stores need starting from invoice preparation to operations of the inventory Laudon and laudon (2012). After analysis, the managers should classify the tasks according to importance. After separation, the managers can develop flow charts of how the process and tasks are performed, this should include decision-making protocols. Moreover, during the analysis the managers can collect samples of every report and forms generated by the current system. From these forms, process, and samples the company can be able to ascertain the business requirements from an accounting software, which can make it easy for the company to decide the software that meets their demands. Business Requirements Integration of an online platform has diversified the business needs of Disk4U rendering the manual process outdated since it cannot meet the business requirements of the company. Moreover, the online platform expands the business requirements of the company such that the company needs to shift from manual process to automatic process. The business needs an integrated financial system that can integrate both the online and physical location operations. In addition to this, the company needs a system that can help it manage the four stores located in different locations within Sydney metropolitan. Nonetheless, the business needs a system that can manage its business transactions on a daily basis. The business needs a system that can revolutionize its processes and products offered to the customers to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. In addition, the business needs a system that can generate business reports with ease and efficiency. Moreover, the business needs a system that can reduce inventory errors and make inventory control efficient. Nonetheless, the information system should be able enhance customer service through making the goods and services from the company easily accessible. The manual system of inventory and sales control presents a lot of data entry sales that can cause the company to loss revenues through human errors. Thus, the business needs an information system that can facilitate correct information is presented to the managers in order to aid in decision making with regard to the strength of the company. System Requirements A strategic information system should be efficient, reliable, and maintainable. According to Ahmadpour et al., (2011) the main functions of a strategic information system are gathering, analysing, and maintenance of data regarding the intelligence of the competitors, internal resources of a company, customers, suppliers and other relevant organizations involved with the company. In addition to this, there are different types of systems that can company can integrate into its business strategies. These include operational level, management level systems, knowledge level systems, and strategic level systems. However, the focus of this report is on strategic level information systems. The strategic level system can help the managers to deal with strategic issues that can contribute to the success of the company. The strategic level system incorporates features like budget forecasting, personnel planning, sales trends forecasting, and operation plan. Software Selection It is evident Disk4U needs a software to make their operations and services more efficient. This can be attributed to the fact that the manual system is obsolete considering the transactions of the online platform. However, it is important to understand the needs of the company before settling for a certain software. As discussed above, Dosk4U is in need of a software that can control its accounting and financial data generated on a daily basis. Moreover, Disk4u is in need of a system that can manage its inventories in order to enhance customer experience thus, enhancing customer satisfaction that can lead to the growth of the company. However, there exist different accounting software created for different needs and thus, the company must first identify the category it falls in to select a software that can facilitate future success and efficiency. Companies fall in four broad categories according to revenue they generate. These categories include; Entry level. Entry-level software is for smaller business that make a revenue of less than $5 million in a year. Moreover, companies in this category usually have up to 20 employees. Small and medium business (SMB). In this category, software is designed for companies that make revenues of up to $100 million and have more 100 employees. Small and medium enterprises (SME). Software is designed for companies that generate a revenue of up to $100 million and have up to 500 employees. Enterprise resource planning (ERP). This are biggest organizations with revenues exceeding $500 million and have more than 500 employees (Randolph, 2013). Moreover, Randolph, (2013) further states that is a company operates a complex business it can choose a software that is that is one-step ahead, in that, a company in the SMB stage can opt to use a software designed for SMEs. Similarly, Randolph further states that if a company operates a simple business, it can opt for a lower category product. A lower category software has fewer features, which can save money for the company. However, it is important to note that a lower category software has fewer features that can force the company to employ other applications such as Access and Excel to perform some accounting tasks. These fill-in resources can be expensive in the long hence causing the company to spend more making it expensive in the end. Having mention that is important to point out that Disk4U falls in the first category since it has only four stores and its employees are roughly less than 20. Thus, the company should go for a software in the entry level. Software for the ent ry level include Sage 300c and 50c, Microsoft Dynamics , Intacct, NetSuite to mention just a few (Softwareadvice.com, 2016). Sage 300c Sage 300c has the ability to manage business whether in one location or indifferent countries. Moreover, sage 300c has the ability to manage operations, finances, and inventories in multiple currencies and languages. Sage 300c provides real time updates, mobile access, and visibility in the entire company (Sage.com, 2016). In addition to this, sage 300 has the ability down the operations of the company according to departments, which improve collaboration and increase transparency. Moreover, sage 300c provide real time updates of the operations and finances of the company, reduce redundancies and inefficiencies that optimize the productivity and performance of the company, give access to manager anytime and anywhere, and can integrate the process of front-to-back offices like marketing, customer services, and sales which increase efficiency and increase productivity in the company (Sage.com, 2016). On the other hand, sage 50c simplify complex accounting process. This include saving t ime by automating manual process thus, enabling the managers and accountants to do a lot of work in less time. In addition to this, sage 50c increases the accuracy of information since it reduces chance of error. Moreover, sage 50c offers instant analysis and reporting, which simplifies decision-making process. Sage 50c offers instant saving, retrieving, and organizing of financial data. Vendor Selection There are many software vendors in the business world, as mentioned above; they include sage, Microsoft dynamics, Intacct, among others. Among these software sage provides the best services ad dynamics to many environments. According to Comparebusinessproducts.com, (2016) sage offers the best business software with diverse accounting abilities and applications. In addition to this, sage is one the software vendors with pride of providing solutions that address specific industries and companies. However, it is important to note that its extensive products are somewhat confusing and intimidating (Comparebusinessproducts.com, 2016). Nonetheless, sage applications are designed for small and medium sized enterprises and their prices range from $2000 to $100,000. Furthermore, sage software is designed to accommodate any business in any location couple with its friendly prices, which makes it the preferred software for Disk4U Company. Challenges of Information Systems According to Newell and Marabelli, (2015) implementing strategic information systems can be a complex task due to the complex nature of information systems. In addition to this, many other studies concur with the sentiments of Newell and Marabelli and point out that despite several positive result of information systems studies have failed to identify the difficulties during implementation of complex information systems. Moreover, studies by Sosa and Kemerer (2011) and Sosa (2009) show that upgrading and maintaining installed information systems is costly. Ideally, companies are forced to upgrade their systems when their competitors upgrade their systems or buy new ones. In this regard, companies are forced to carry out regular updates to meet the growing demand of the business environment. Conclusion From the above discussion is evident that strategic information systems are an important aspect of any business in the current business environment. In addition to this, information systems are the driving force of change and revolution in businesses. This is because information systems enable competitiveness in the modern business world. Moreover, the concept of information systems is crucial since it can be used for differentiation, cost leadership, reduce cost, and acquire competitive intelligence. Thus, it is important for Disk4U Company to adopt a strategic information system in order to revolutionize its operations and services. In addition to this, information systems can enable a company achieve competitive advantage over its competitors. Ideally, it is important for managers to have a deeper understanding of information systems in order to facilitate smooth integration of strategic information systems to business strategies. In addition, information systems should not focuse d on individual aspects of business management but on the general aspect of business management. Moreover, from the discussed literature it is evident Disk4U can use information systems to revolutionize its operation and make their process efficient in order to increase productivity. References Ahmadpour, A., Akbaryan-Fard, M., Arad, H. and Ojagh, S., 2011. 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