Business Research Methods Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business Research Methods - Assignment Example The information that was gathered from the research completed is of great help to the company. This is because the company is able to pinpoint their strong hold like customer’s satisfaction, loyalty to its products, and its products competitiveness in the market. This is very important in any organization in order to maximize the profits (Allan, 2007, p 45). In the first part of the question that gets to know how first the customers was attended to. It’s observed that most of the customers this is approximately 62% seem to have been attended to in less than 5 minutes. This is a ratio question that its goal is to establish an exact time. The therefore having more than half of the customers falling on the upper cut in terms of in time service it’s commendable. No one likes to wait for service delivery we all detest quest .In the business world service delivery is key (Fraser, 1990, p 23). The second question in the research is also out to establish the almost exact amount of time that the customer gets responded to. As a company apple is trying to establish its competence in customer service when it comes to responding to their needs. Most of the customers as well here seem to get their response in a span of less than 12 hours. It is all logical to know that customers especially if one is calling regarding problem with products provided by apple company among them phones which are an everyday use a 12 hour wait for them to attend and fix a problem is long. Therefore the response shows that most of the customers get delayed service hence it’s in order for apple to improve on the above (Trochim, 2000, p 78). Referring to the third question in regards to the second question. We come across customers calling for all the varied reasons this includes warranty claim, more information on the products, web pages among others. Looking at this in a customer’s point of view it clearly shows some sort of inefficiency. This is because when cu stomer is calling to inquire about for instance there settings with the web pages and they get the response after 2 hours or so. The information they needed might not be of any help later .People ask questions to get direct answers to solve their problems according to philosopher Rene Decartes. While information gets to an individual not immediately it does not serve the intended purpose. Only 19% of the customers seem to have gotten the information in less than 2 hours (Fraser, 1990, p 76). According to the research we gather that those with problems with functionality of the products, and service problem had to wait for the longest time. As indicated prior apple products are an everyday use therefore their failure to function or delayed fixing can cause an individual a job, money time, it has power even to spoil a day and even break a relationship either personal or professional. Apple customers as the research gathers are young people by young we are talking less than 40 year old s that is where the customer base is. The company has been able to detain this age group because of its products that are saying compatible with the age. This age comprises late teens this is where freshmen in college fall to the young entrepreneurs who are striving hard to climb the corporate ladder. Basically what this age comprises is the proverbial young and energetic. Therefore having established that apple company has the right information required to identify its strength and weaknesses among its customers (Trochim, 2000, p 57). The question that rates the customer service the research finds out the customer service at apple is rated very low that is it falls below average. The customer service

Debt and Equity Essay Example for Free

Debt and Equity Essay Long-term financing requires a meticulous understanding of the various features of debt and equity and their impact an organization. While evaluating debt and equity, an investment banker also has to consider the unique characteristics of the organizations dealings while ensuring that the organizations requirements are met. Debt CapitalDebt capital includes all long-term borrowing incurred by the firm. The cost of debt was found to be less than the cost of other forms of financing. The relative inexpensiveness of debt capital is because the lenders take the least risk of any long-term contributors of capital. Their risk is less than that of other because (1) they have a higher priority of claim against any earnings or assets available for payment (2) they have a far stronger legal pressure against the company to make payment than do preferred or common stockholders, and (3) the tax-deductibility of interest payments lowers the debt cost to the firm substantially. Equity CapitalEquity capital consists of the long-term funds provided by the firms owners, the stockholders. Unlike borrowed funds that must be repaid at a specified future date, equity capital is expected to remain in the firm for an indefinite period. The two basic sources of equity capital are (1) preferred stock and (2) common stock equity, which includes common stock and retained earnings. Common stock is typically the most expensive form of equity, followed by retained earnings and preferred stock, respectively (Pinegar, Wilbricht, 1989). A firms capital structure is determined by the mix of long-term debt and equity it uses in financing its operations. Debt and equity capital differ with respect to voice in management, claims on income and assets, maturity, and tax treatment. Capital structure can be externally assessed using the debt ratio and the debt-equity ratio to measure the firms degree of indebtedness or the times interest earned ratio and the fixed-payment coverage ratio to measure its ability to meet fixed financial payments. Research suggests is an optimal capital structure that balances the firms; benefits and cost of debt financing. The major benefit of debt financing is the tax-deductible interest, and the costs of debt financing include the  probability of bankruptcy, agency costs imposed by lenders in their loan agreements, and asymmetric information costs attributable to managers having more information about the firms prospects than do investors (Modigliani and Miller, 1958). Reference: Modigliani, Franco and Miller, Merton. (1958). The Cost of Capital, CorporationFinance, and the Theory of Investment. American Economic Review. Pinegar, J. Michael and Wilbricht, Liza. (1989). What Managers Think of CapitalStructure Theory.

The Short Story Of Mother To Son English Literature Essay

The Short Story Of Mother To Son English Literature Essay There are so many great stories, short plays and poems to critique within this text book. The poem I chose to critique was Mother to Son by Langston Hughes. He was born James Langston Hughes on February 1st 1902, in Joplin Missouri. James was a member of an abolitionist family. Hughes attended central high school in Cleveland Ohio, but he started writing poetry when he was just in the eighth grade. During this time, he was even selected as class poet by his fellow classmates. Langstons father did not think that his son could make a living on writing poems alone, so he enrolled him in an engineering program at Columbia University. Soon after, Langston withdrew from the program in order to pursue his writing career. Shortly after, Langston published his first poem which was his most famous, The Negro Speaks of Rivers. Langstons work got so much recognition it appeared in the NAACP and other publications. He was a prolific writer and throughout his life, he wrote sixteen books of poems, two novels, three collections of short stories, four volumes of editorial and documentary fiction and the list goes on. With all these prior knowledge of Hughes, I was able to understand his writing style a bit more clearly and grasp his theme within the poem. The theme for Hughes poem is, Even though life has been hard for the mother and she could not see what was ahead, she still encourages her son to continue on in life because she made it through. I love the way that Langston, so clearly depicted this theme within the poem and while you read it you can get a clear sense of exactly what is going on and you may even seem as if it were your mother speaking to you. The poem is self narrated and one can feel the love and emotion from the character. It has a strong meaning behind it because the mom cares for her child and wants him to continue on in life and to never give up. In life, mothers always wish the best for their children and never want them to fall by the way side or be led astray. Every mother wants for the child to be successful in everything that they do. It makes a mom heart broken or feels as if they failed, when their child fails. A critic by the name of R. Baxter Miller says In this poem the woman also represents the continuation of the race. Having given life to the next generation, the mother represents a figure of female strength, affirmation and generational continuity. Another critic by the name of James Baldwin says, Hughes is at his best in lyrics like Mother to Son. The poems lyrics elements include a first person speaker, an expression of intense personal emotion and a belief in spiritual transcendence of time and early circumstance. Both critics are correct and within the poem you can see exactly what they are referring to. The tone of the poem is full of love but also has intense warning. The mother wants the best for her son and Hughes clearly depicts that within his poem. The poem starts off by the mother informing the son that life for her has been hard. She states Well son, Ill tell you; Life for me aint been no crystal stair. Its had its tacks in it and splinters and boards torn upà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Meyer 1168) The mother, just like every mom who has had a hard time in life, tells her child what she has gone through; her trials and tribulations. She goes on to describe her life by saying the boards were torn up there was no carpet in places, which symbolizes her emptiness, how tough it was and chaotic. Think of a house if you were looking to buy one and you came across a house with the boards up in the air, mold on the walls, roof is leaking, insects infested the place and there was no carpet where carpet should be. Chances are you would turn your head the other way and look for something better, for you would know this is not the way a house should be. You could never make your family stay in this house for you know that they deserve better. Just li ke the mom she talks about the hard parts of her life, but she is trying to do better even in spite of whatever it is that she is going through. She goes on to say that shes been climbing and reaching landings to make it. Meaning shes been going ahead trying to do better and make something out of her situation and she is not giving up. Sometimes in life we have to realize that our situation is not the worst thing on earth. Even if we were going through the loss of a job, the death of a child, the loss of the house, being homeless, starvation or battling a deadly disease. We should realize that we can make it through in spite of. The mom warns her son to stay focused and persevere. She states, dont you turn back. Dont you set down on the steps because you find its kinder hard. (Meyer 1168) You can hear in her tone that she does not want him to ever give up or turn back while hes experiencing his tough times. Every mom encourages their child to go through whatever the situation may be and to never look back and say we cant do it. Sometimes as a child, we may think the problem is just too big for us to deal with or that we cant get through it. Sometimes we get weak and weary when our situation looks like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Even though it looks as if we cant go on, we have to remember the warnings that our mothers have said to us. We have to remember when they tell us to be better than them in everything that we do. Mothers try hard to get as far as they can in life, educationally and physically. Every mom tells their child to go higher and do more. So if your mom got a bachelors degree and made only 30,000 a year, she would want you to get a masters or a PH. D and make 60,000 a year. We have to remember when our mothers tell us to be better than they were. An example would be if your mom use to mistreat you as a child excessively beat you or put you down every time you needed her, she would want for you to treat your children with love and compassion. Your mother would also want you to be there for your child and uplift them in times of need. Anything that your mom did that you did not agree with, you should do better when you have your children. After all the warnings and encouragement, the mother ends of the poem by saying Ise still climbin, and life for me ain;t been no crystal stair.(Meyer 1168) A critic by the name of Alishia talks on her belief of what the crystal stair symbolizes. She states, I believe the crystal stair reference means that crystal is transparent, you can see the other side clearly through crystal. If her life was no crystal stair, she didnt know what the outcome was going to be, she just knew that she had to keep moving and keep working f or the best life she could make for herself. I agree with Alishia because if something is crystal you can see right through it and since the mom says life hasnt been a crystal stair she cant see through her life or see what is to come. When you cant see whats ahead of you, it makes it hard to plan out what you will do and prepare yourself accordingly. If life was a crystal stair for the mom, then should would be better prepared for everything and have time to plan out a solution to all her problems but life is never like that we never know whats to come. All we know is that when it does come our way we must not fall back, or get scared and give up. We must keep on going and persevere to the end so we can feel good that we accomplished something and made it out on top. Not only will we get personal satisfaction, but our mothers will be satisfied. This is what the main theme is for the poem Mother to son. Its all about us making it until the end and never giving up because we cant see whats ahead. The poem was very meaningful and motivational and Hughes did a wonderful job displaying this within his poem. This poem encourages and uplifts the reader to keep on moving forward in life and this is a life lesson that we all should take heed to. Work Cited Page Meyer, Michael. Mother to Son. Eighth. Boston: 1168. Print. Miller, R. Baxter. Mother To son critical overview. answers.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr 2010. . Baldwin, James. Mother To son critical overview. answers.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr 2010. . Alisha, . American poems. American poems.com. N.p., 21 04 2009. Web. 26 Apr 2010. . (February 1, 1902 May 22, 1967) Born in Joplin, Missouri, James Langston Hughes was a member of an abolitionist family. He was the great-great-grandson of Charles Henry Langston, brother of John Mercer Langston, who was the first Black American to be elected to public office, in 1855. Hughes attended Central High School in Cleveland,

Primary Education in Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Greece, and the United States :: Essays Papers

Primary Education in Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Greece, and the United States Throughout this program I have been confronted with many images and facts about primary education that I will not soon forget. The sounds of young Turkish children reciting "I am a Turk, I am strong"; the image of six year olds in Morocco learning to memorize the Qur'an before they can read or write; the idea of community schools in Egypt where students and parents learn together to benefit and bring prosperity to the community as a whole; and, finally, the idea that art is so important to Greek culture that it is one of the five major goals of primary education. These are all interesting things, they are all things I never would have expected to learn through this program, and they have made this topic and project more meaningful for me. I chose the topic of primary education not only because I am studying to be a teacher, but also because there are a lot of controversies and new ideas that are coming into American education currently, particularly the acts and ideas of No Child Lef t Behind, and I was curious to research how other countries were dealing with the same issues that we see in the educational system of the United States. I started my learning plan with the goals of seeing how primary education was structured in each of the countries we were visiting (Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, and Greece) both theoretically as well as how effective the actual practice of education was, to see what the situation regarding the primary education of girls was in each of the countries and what differences existed in the education of the two genders, to find out the unique solutions each country had found for their own educational system that addressed their country's own specific challenges, to see the role that nationalism and religion played in the primary education of students in each of the countries, and finally to come to the grand finale of the purpose of primary education in each of the countries, to use that information to help me better understand primary educati on, and to compare these findings to the purpose of primary education in the United States. In my project today I plan to lay out seven aspects of primary education, explain how each of these aspects is carried out in the four countries we visited, and then to speak about how each aspect influences the cultures of Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, and Greece.

Money and Banking

Chapter5 4. Explain why you would be more or less willing to buy long-term AT&T bonds under the following circumstances: a. Trading in these bonds increases, making them easier to sell. More, because if it is easier to sell bond this means that liquidity of bonds increase. b. You expect a bear market in stocks(stock prices are expected to decline) More because these bonds’s expected return will increase compared to stocks. . Brokerage commission on stocks fall Less because the decrease in brokerage commissions on stocks makes them more liquid. d. You expect interest rates to rise Less because when interest rates increase the expected return decreases. e. Brokerage commission on bonds fall. More because the decrease in brokerage commissions on bonds makes bond more liquid. 7. Using both the liquidity preference framework and the supply and demand for bonds framework, show shy interest rates are procyclical If the economy is growing there is a business cycle expansion witch will result to a increase in supply of bonds this means that the supply curve will shift to the right if this happens there will be a new equilibrium point and if everything is constant the new equilibrium point will be lower witch means that price of a bond will decrease and the interest rate will increase. If the economy grows the first effect we can see Is that the income will increase. When income increases the demand for money will increase shifting the demand curve to the right if every thing else is constant this will mean that the equilibrium point will change thus moving up and showing an increase in interest rate. 9. Find the â€Å"Credit Markets† column in the Wall Street Journal. Underline the statement in the column that explain bond price movements, and draw the appropriate supply and demand diagrams that support these statement. The column describes how the price of treasury bonds rose when the stock market faltered. The higher relative expected returns on bonds would then cause the quantity demanded to rise each price, shifting the demand curve to the right. The outcome is a rise in the equilibrium price and a fall in interest rates. Massive amount of supply of bonds is set to enter the market over the next month. The increase in supply would shift the supply curve to the right, causing the equilibrium price to fall.

The Loss Of Innocence Essays - Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience

The Loss Of Innocence Essays - Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience The Loss Of Innocence Innocence is such a precious gift. For those who do not know what exactly innocence is, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines innocence as, freedom from guilt or sin through being unacquainted with evil. When do humans in general have little or no guilt and worries? In the days of our youth, everything is much simpler. Remember never going to work, paying bills, supporting a family, and doing all the other things that is expected from an adult? All children worry about is having a good time. Children take almost nothing seriously. They can care less about women, popularity, money, or the future. Some people however, feel that innocence is the worst time of anyones life. This brings up the question whether or not innocence is important in life or not. Although it seems as if decisions and events made during a persons childhood are totally irrelevant towards the rest of his/her life, these factors make a tremendous impact on the type of adult a person becomes. For example, it is commonly known that most children who had abusive parents have grown up to be just the same. If a child had very loving and caring parents, chances are the child will grow to be very loving towards his/her children. A child doesnt know any better during the stage of innocence and is unable to reasonably distinguish the differences between right and wrong. The child who abuses his kids as an adult was brought up that way himself. In his own mind, he feels this is the right way to discipline his children. This shows that innocence does play an important part in everyones life. Just imagine never having to worry about anything, having a guilt free mind, and being able to do just about anything that can not be done as adults. Holden Caufeild from the book The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, wishes innocence was never lost. To Holden, the perfect example of innocence is his little sister Phoebe. Phoebe has absolutely no hatred towards anyone or anything, as well as no worries. Holden wants to save this kind of innocence from being lost in the transition from childhood to adulthood. What would the world be like if innocence were never lost? One way it would benefit humanity is the lack of hatred among the world. During youth, their may be an occasional argument of some sort, maybe even a little physical fight, but nothing like firing a handgun at a fellow human being. Children are blind towards the race and ethnicity of others. A kid will hang out with another kid no matter what, it is the lack of innocence and the ignorance we learn from adults that manipulate children otherwise. Think of all the things that the human race can achieve if we all put our minds together. Another way keeping innocence alive would benefit humanity is the constant craving for fun and adventure. As adults, people have very little if any time at all do things that they enjoy. The adventurous mind is lost in time with the responsibilities that are bestowed upon adults. Once again, if innocence were kept alive, these ambitions would never depart from our lives. As adults people also have more freedom to go places and to do certain things, making it easier to do the things, which they wanted to but could not do during childhood. Who wouldnt want to live in a world were having fun was always the main priority of life? Some people actually despise the idea of innocence lasting for all eternity. They do believe that innocence is probably the greatest time of anyones life. They do however, feel that the lack of organization and mental capacity of those without innocence would have a tremendously devastating impact on society in general. With the ongoing life of innocence, a large portion of individuals would never have the urge to learn, work, and act upon the necessary needs for humanity to survive. Without a proper education which is usually provided by those who no longer live in a world of innocence, people would not have the mental abilities to get a good job in life, thus providing little income for