Food Journal Reflections Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Food Journal Reflections - Lab Report Example I had one and a half serving of vegetables and one serving of fruit per day (organic content) which I considered too little. For foods with animal products, I took a glass of milk for each of the two days. Most of the foods I ate are local foods. Most of the foods stocked in the grocery and supermarket stalls in the country are local foods. It is important to prompt the local food industry by consuming more of the local foods than the imported ones (Wang,2014). The local foods are of an immense variety each containing specific nutritional requirements.The average American eats one serving of fruit and vegetable each day which is too little to provide the necessary organic requirements. There is also an increasing amount of meats consumption in American households while foods containing other essential animal products like minerals are on the decline. A healthy diet requires that an individual eats a balanced diet every day while striving to sustain a caloric intake of about 2000 calories per day. This requires cutting down on meat consumption to at least once per two days and increase the intake of foods with organic content like fruits and vegetables to at least once per day. Along with fruits and vegetables, individuals should also strive to have at least every meal providing essential animal products apart from meat (Wang, 2014). Such products include milk, eggs et cetera. Wang, D. D., Leung, C. W., Li, Y., Ding, E. L., Chiuve, S. E., Hu, F. B., & Willett, W. C. (2014). Trends in dietary quality among adults in the United States, 1999 through 2010.  JAMA internal medicine,  174(10),

Foreign market entry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Foreign market entry - Essay Example In case of companies, there can a variety of strategies to enter into a global market thus expanding the scope of operations. Globalization is always a positive sign for those who are striving for it (Causes and Effects of Globalization, 2012). But here it is important to be noted that expansion of the operations by entering into the foreign global market is not possible for all companies. The expansion actually depends upon the resource availability of the firm. It is crucial issue that either the firm has enough resources or not. Resources play an important role in all decision making of any firm. Before going across the boundaries in a foreign market the firm has to decide its strategy that either it would export the goods in the foreign market or may acquire a local firm in the host country to start operations. Another option might be a kind of joint venture with a famous local firm of the host economy. There will be a slight difference between the acquisition of a local firm of host country or doing a joint venture with that same local firm. Whether adopt any strategy, the important point is that the result will be growth of the firm in either case (Lynch, 2013). After consideration of all the resource availability and other strategies now the point comes that what will be the factors which may affect any firm’s decision of globalization. These factors include a long list of all the possible components which may affect a firm’s operations whether local or global. These factors may be country specific or even sometimes industry specific too. There may be certain Government rules and regulations which are not feasible for any small company. In such cases the company may not expand its operations though it may possess enough resources. Similarly there will be many other policies and rules which any firm must have to obey in order to enter into the local market. Though many economies are working on it and many of them have also revised their trade rules

Should the Government provide health care Essay

Should the Government provide health care - Essay Example This implies that there needs to be a partnership between healthcare providers, social workers and the government to undertake this effectively. In the end, the well-being of the public will bring about a positive impact on the economy as opportunities for innovation and productivity will be ensured. â€Å"Strategies such as community oriented primary care are needed to address the upstream causes of social inequities in health and to foster intersectoral cooperation† (van Weel et al 469). Therefore, one would say that it is the responsibility of the government to be involved in the provision of health care to ensure accessibility of health services to many, especially the poor, health care industry regulation, and to enhance fairness in the distribution of funds allocated to health care. It is essential to define the role that the government should play in providing health care, as it is clear that this will be an advantageous step in ensuring citizens live healthily. It can be argued that the government’s role in provision of health care primarily should be to ensure access in two ways: availability and affordability. Health care services are a right to every human being thus they should be at their reach and at a cost that is within their capability. However, the government should not overspend on the provision of health care at the expense of other issues such as education and infrastructure. The best way to control this is by â€Å"playing a preventive role where the significance of public programs becomes clear as they create awareness† hence reducing costs that would be otherwise incurred on treatment (â€Å"What should be the Government’s role† 20). Therefore, government health care is defined as â€Å"direct payments made to doctors, medical facilities and supplementary health care providers† (White). Moreover, through the government taking a preventive as opposed to a reactive position drives down costs, and t his caps the debate on relevance of health care benefits to the poor who lack food shelter since health benefits are essential and indeed an income to the poor. Nevertheless, this debate is already countered by the fact that when measuring progress of a nation, the issue of accessibility to health care is considered alongside food, housing and other utilities. It has been suggested, â€Å"that the poverty threshold should be raised so that health benefits don’t vault the poor over the line† (Porter). In this case, health benefits would not merely be in terms of funds dispensed to the poor, but also information that makes them aware of costs that could be avoided through preventive measures. Moreover, it can be argued that the government should be involved in the provision of health care to ensure there is regulation and control. This advocates for the government to become concerned with optimizing costs that insurance companies impose in terms of add-on costs; for exam ple, processing claims and distributing insurance forms, which end up deterring people from seeking treatment in the event of illness. More importantly, the government should ensure that services offered are of good quality and equal to all in order to streamline the basic system in existence. This is an advantage because it improves â€Å"

Ethical or Unethical Behaviour at Boeing Case Study

Ethical or Unethical Behaviour at Boeing - Case Study Example It has been observed that as a consequence from the cancellation of the order from Pentagon, the company had to bear an extra cost burden of more than $1 billion in its sales. Moreover, the firm was also banned from bidding in the federal contracts for around 20 months which in turn affected its shareholders, employees as well as investors by a large extent. Additionally, the company was also found to be frequently changing its CEO’s in quick succession which created confusions and cost burden as well as other leadership hazards within the internal business environment of the organisation. For instance, in 2002 the company was led by Philip Condit. After few years Condit was replaced by Harry Stonecipher, but he was also soon taken over by McNerny. Such frequent changes in the CEO’s of the company eventually affected its financial performances by a large extent. From the overall analysis, it could be concluded that the ethical or unethical practices of the company in th e presence ultimately affected the stakeholders of Boeing including the investors, the employees and the shareholders among others (Griffin 111-112). Q.2. Which Organizational Approach To Social Responsibility Did Boeing Appear To Use Under The Leadership Of Condit And Stonecipher? How Do You Think the Approach Changed Under McNerney’s Leadership? Under the leadership of Philip Condit, Boeing was observed to be highly inclined towards mergers, both in the horizontal and vertical directions within the airlines industry as a strategy to obtain competitive advantages. It has been observed in this regard that the merger led by Philip Condit was not successful which rather gave rise... Apart from that in another issue of stolen documents from the rival company and thus practicing unethical competition, Boeing had to face cancellation of the already placed order form Pentagon and a ban of 20 months from bidding in federal contracts (Griffin 111-112). Therefore, it can be observed that Boeing, under the leadership of Condit was mostly focused on competitive positioning of the company owing to which it can be stated that the company followed a compliance-based approach towards its CSR initiatives, which however, resulted in a failure.After the leadership of Philip Condit was replaced by Harry Stonecipher, the company also had to deal with many such issues. In the year 2005, Pentagon further cancelled some of its deals with the company because of ethical issues that depicted discrimination against female workers with Boeing. The female workers also claimed that they were underpaid and filed a suit against the company. The company suffered a loss of billions of dollars from the cancellation of the Pentagon deal apart from spending almost $73 million in order to settle the suit filed by its female workers. Furthermore, Stonecipher was also under the scanner for his affair with one of the female subordinates of the company which fuelled the allegation of sexual harassment against him. As a result of such issues, Stonecipher was forced to resign from his position as the CEO of Boeing. From the analysis of both the leadership styles of the CEO’s in Boeing, it can be affirmed that the organisational approach.

Based on your ideas on Nilsen and Tannen, discuss how language Essay

Based on your ideas on Nilsen and Tannen, discuss how language reflects patriarchy (Patriarchy) - Essay Example Besides, she manages to show that even when filling forms, women tell stories about themselves because most forms offer four titles to choose from and they include â€Å"Mr.†, â€Å"Mrs† or â€Å"Miss† and â€Å"Dr†. In her work, â€Å"Mr.† â€Å"carries no meaning other than that the respondent is male† (Tennen395); however, when women accept â€Å"Mrs.† or â€Å"Miss† it shows that they have been married and that they have conservative forms of address. Women using the label â€Å"Ms.† decline to reveal if they are married while men using the title â€Å"Mr.† decline nothing considering that nothing was asked; hence, women using â€Å"Ms.† tend to be seen â€Å"as either liberated or rebellious depending on the observer’s attitudes† (Tennen395). Tennen shows that married women surnames are marked and that if a married woman accepts her husband’s name, she acknowledges to the world that , â€Å"she is married and has traditional values† (Tennen396). ... From her dictionary cards, Nielsen shows that â€Å"feminine words have acquired sexual connotations while the masculine word retains serious business like aura† (Nielsen). For instance, she manages to show that while a callboy is an individual who calls actors when time comes for them to go to stage, a call girl is considered a prostitute. In her study, Nielsen found about 200 pairs of words that accepted both masculine and feminine forms and in nearly all of the pairs, masculine form was considered the base where a feminine suffix was added. The masculine form is basis on which compounds are made apart from one semantic area where masculine word is not the basis and the areas deals with sex, marriage and motherhood. Nielsen shows that when someone refers to a virgin, the listener probably considers a female unless the speaker specifies a masculine pronoun, which is the same case with the term prostitute. Moreover, Nielsen shows that the grammar used in writing or even talkin g about weddings show the expectation of men playing an active role when men wed women while the women become brides of men. Nevertheless, titles offered to royalty indicate that males can be at loss because of the assumption that they predominantly play a powerful role; for instance, when a female has the royal title, then the man she marries does not automatically acquire a matching title. From Nielsen’s article, it is clear that connotations between encouraging male and pessimistic female connotations can be established from various pairs of words that differ denotatively in the area of sex. For instance, patron and matron have varying degrees of esteem that womenfolk attempt to use the

Oligopoly in the Beer Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Oligopoly in the Beer Industry - Essay Example The U.S. beer industry is dominated by three major brewers: Anheuser-Busch, the makers of Budweiser and Michelob, SAB Miller, and Morson Coors. These three account for over 80% of total beer production and are large breweries with annual shipments of over 15 million barrels (31 gallons per barrel) nationwide and abroad. Most of these breweries are located in Texas, Colorado, Wisconsin, and New York State (Tremblay and Tremblay, 2005). Regional breweries produce between 15,000 and 15 million barrels a year, with brews distributed in specific regions. Most regional breweries are privately held such as Pabst and Latrobe. Regional breweries account for approximately 15% of total U.S. beer shipments. Most of these breweries are located in Pennsylvania, Oregon, Wisconsin, and California (Goldammer, 2005). At the bottom of the industry pyramid are microbreweries and brewpubs, "craft brewers" that produce specialty niche products. They ship less than 15,000 barrels of beer each year and began growing in numbers in the late 1970s. Brewpubs are restaurant-breweries that sell its beer on-premise, a common practice of European producers, and rarely exceed 5,000 barrels in annual output (Goldammer, 2005). The industry is highly compet... These were developed after the "price wars" in the last three decades, giving consumers the impression of choice in price, taste, and image, and giving microbreweries and importers the opportunity to enter the market in the 1990s (Tremblay and Tremblay, 2005). Other factors, such as the growing size of the Hispanic market, an expanding economy, consumer interest in higher-priced beers, and the wave of market consolidation where the large breweries began buying regional and small breweries led to industry growth. However, sales in recent years have remained flat (Anheuser-Busch grew by only 0.7% in 2005) due to the health effects of beer and competition from beverages such as wine seen to be healthier. Characteristic of the competition is the recent decision by InBev (of Belgium) to sell regional brewer Rolling Rock to Anheuser-Busch (U.S.) and of SAB (South Africa) to buy Miller in 2002. InBev's decision was made after realizing that though it is the biggest brewer in the world - it bottles premium brands Beck's and Stella Artois - it prefers not to compete with Anheuser-Busch in the locally-brewed segment, limiting itself instead to selling its high margin, imported premium brands (Hannaford, 2006). The U.S. beer market is therefore full of breweries of all sizes, all with a domestic and some even with an international presence, and foreign brands making inroads into the higher margin specialty brands where the larger, more established brewers are competing with small regional and microbreweries and brewpubs. The nature of the competition, however, is such that larger breweries, which include InBev and SAB which established its presence through its purchase of Miller, can resort

Market Model Patterns of Change Essay Example for Free

Market Model Patterns of Change Essay 1. Describe the industry and explain the general pattern of change of the particular market model Health insurance in the United States providers represent competitive market because they are numerous, variety of choices, and no single entity has much power over prices. The health insurance can be considered as rapid growth industry. Recently, this industry is transforming in a rapid way and evolving into an oligopoly. Insurance markets in many states are eventually controlled and dominated by a few large firms. There were more than five hundred health insurers involved mergers between 1998 and 2008 (Bakhtiari, 2010). Although there are hundreds of small insurance companies operating in the market, the industry Led by WellPoint, 12 health plans cover two-thirds of the enrollment in the U.S. commercial-insurance market (Bloomberg News, 2010). An analysts report cited in the article predicts there will be 100 insurers with around 200,000 members could be forced out of business. Smaller insurers are increasingly unable to invest in the infrastructure and technology to effectively manage care (Bakhtiari, 2010). However, mergers have been the main power rather than small insurers going out of business. 2. Hypothesize the basic short-run and long-run behaviors of the model in the industry you have chosen in a â€Å"market economy† This paper uses Kinked-Demand theory of oligopoly; there is no single theory that explains oligopoly behavior. The kinked demand model assumes that if one firm raises the prices, other firms will not follow to increase. If the firm reduces its price, it is assumed that its competitors will follow suit and reduce their prices as well. The result is a demand curve for the firm that is kinked at the current equilibrium price (Low, 2000). Taking this as assumption, a single health insurer that tries to raise price will lose market share mainly just because other insurers are not following, it will suffer a loss in demand because the competitors’ prices remain low. In contract, if a single firm that cuts prices, all of its competitors will follow to reduce the price. As a result, a firm will have a kinked demand curve. Firms may operate at a profit in the short-run if demand for the product is high relative to costs. The firm may force to go out of business if it can’t generate enough revenue to even cover the variable costs. Hence the model predicts that prices in the long run should be fairly rigid in an oligopoly. This could indicate that insurance premiums will remain fairly stable in the health insurance industry. The kinked demand theory suggests there will be price in these markets and the firms will rely more on non-price competition to boost sales, revenue and profits. The result in market share is no gain and relative small increases in quantity demanded (Low, 2000). 3. Analyze at least three (3) possible areas for the industry that could lead to transaction costs, and explain each in detail In the health insurance industry, transaction cost could arise from acquisition expenses, process outsourcing, and increased product complexity.Acquisition is the expense of soliciting and placing new insurance business on a company’s books. It includes agent’s underwriting expenses, medical and credit, report fees, commissions, and marketing support services. The significant efforts are made by insurance companies to lower acquisition costs because of the competition. Outsourcing of processes may become a necessity when firms gather up more and more customers due to mergers, the current workforce will no longer be able to handle jobs. Sometime, hiring more employees could be very costly for some firms because of increasing market salaries; outsourcing could be the better option. Firms will have to pay additional expenses to outsourcing firms that process application and provide customer service. This lead to transaction cost. Transaction costs may also arise from increase product complexity due to firms grow, merge and consolidation. Products become more complex catering to more segments due to gathering more customer; firms increase product lines. Hence, customers will have to incur transaction costs in searching or inquiring for the best product, and in estimating the quality of the service. 4. Speculate about the behavior that could result from these transactions and propose at least two (2) strategies for dealing with them It affects consumers’ behavior for reconsidering the health plan when transaction costs arise from product complexity. Any uncertainty arises from product uncertainty; it refers to the difficulties in determining the quality of purchased products (Thompson, 2004). Consumers are likely to inquire more information if purchased services will meet their expectations before they purchase. Consumers rely on the quality examination that insurance agents or references. This product uncertainty may increase transaction cost. This can be dealt with by reinforcing product quality through advertising about the products and services, meeting with potential customers, and providing training to employees to meet better expectation. When transaction costs arise from enforcement and monitoring, behavioral results are uncertainty. Behavioral uncertainty refers to the inherent difficulties faced by buyers in accurately evaluating the contractual performance of insurance companies (Thompson, 2004). This increases transaction cost as consumers spend more time thinking about buying insurance because the claims may against them or excessive policy. This can be dealt with by ensuring that potential customers understand the nature of the contract. 5. Collect costs, revenue data, or other data from the industry you deem relevant. Explain how you would modify the data in order to make it relevant to decisions a manager must make Base of the data from Austin Hungerford, health insurance markets in many local areas are highly concentrated and the exercise of market power in concentrated markets generally leads to higher prices and reduced output. In the data, medical loss ratios among major insurers range from a low of 70.7% to almost 89%. Some major commercial insurers have had significant decreases in medical expense ratios in the past decade. For example, CIGNA HealthCare’s medical loss ratio, 86.3% in 2001, fell to 70.7% in 2008 (Austin Hungerford, 2009). In general, medical loss ratios can change dramatically from one year to another. This explained by unexpectedly high medical costs or by aggressive pricing intended to increase market share. The above data help managers understand industry characteristics better than an individual. It is relevant to managers by consolidating all of the medical loss ratio, and combining them in an industry average. The managers have a better feel for industry averages and trends. 6. Explain the major factors that affect the degree of competitiveness in your industry. Use the data to develop at least three (3) measures (e.g., productivity measures) to show how the industry is evolving The first factor is the number of firms on the market. If there are large number of firms operate in industry, overall prices will be reduced. The second factor is government regulation which affects the degree of competitiveness of the health insurance industry. The third is government provides health insurance. This can change the entire game plan for health industry. Private firms may be unable to compete against government’s insurance plans. That will affect the overall competitiveness of the industry. These measures to show how the industry is evolving include average prices of health insurance plans, potential buyers, and overall average medical costs. Average price of health insurance will show the industrys evolution by examining patterns of profit growth in relation to health insurance costs. The number of health insurance buyers will help understand the growth patterns in customer base, and demand for health insurance plans. Medical costs will show the relationship between industry growths, inflation of costs, and increase in general medical care.