Human Needs in Organizational Settings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Human Needs in Organizational Settings - Essay Example Personal qualities which are encouraged are punctuality, good individual organization, motivation, ability to deal ethically with people and leadership qualities. Any career success incorporates three variables - knowledge of the career desired, the ability to devise a plan and the motivation and devotion to put the plan into action. On the way along the career ladder, one needs to be confident, possess independent thinking and ability to solve problems and make decision-making. We expect the applicants to introduce themselves via competently produced CVs and exhibit their abilities in practical tasks offered by the Selection Board. We are going to assess an individual based on information about one’s abilities and skills, achievements and personality variables. We are also interested in person’s preferences and interests, values and attitudes. To obtain the picture of one’s professional competence we offer tests to see literacy or math level. A specific written or practical exam is also possible. At this pre-selection stage, a selection advisor will determine if an applicant can qualify to continue further selection procedure. At the next stage, we deem important to test applicants’ communication skills and personality. That’s why on the second stage of the assessment procedure prospective applicants are offered to have an interview. Since the company is interested in organizing people into a strong team, peer interviews can be the most suitable tool to use for the creation of this team.

Site research assignment Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Site assignment - Research Paper Example There are a lot of trees, of various shapes, sizes and colors. Most of them are dark brown in color and are dried because of cold weather. The sun is setting and behind the cloudy atmosphere there is a bright orange-yellow light including a little purplish shade. I see here a lot of colors, the ones which are part of this place, like the pale green grass, brown tress, gray pebbles and the white sides of the jogging track, a small fountain and a pond with a few birds and ducks. There are a lot of people around. People here are wearing warm and neutral colors like red, yellow, grey and black. However, a pink and purple stroller catches my attention. It might be referred to the most colorful sight in the park. The park is full of people and kids around. This must be the busiest time, I guess. There are number of people who are using the park for a walk, others for playing and the rest for feeding the birds and the ducks. I see a group of three women, one of them is carrying her baby in stroller. Fragrance of the place is that of soil, the moist air and a very strong feeling of dryness is experienced. Date: November 21, 2013 Time: 7:00 PM Observation: As this observation requires a walk ignoring surroundings therefore I came at a time when it was quiet here. The space was filled with moisture. The grass was getting wet and there were no birds that could be seen except for a couple of ducks. The pebbles were glazing the dew drops and it was getting cold. I see the grey sky with slight orange shade (of the city lights). The thing that caught my attention was the small house built for ducks and a watch man who probably was there before to take care of the ducks. I could see a couple of ducks outside and I had been wondering since then that where did the rest go. Now I know where they managed to escape. Date: November 22, 2013 Time: 6:00 AM Observation: Today I decided to go for a morning walk at the park. The reason I chose an early timing for the observation was to c omplete the requirements. The sounds I could hear were of the birds chirping and looking for food, I could hear the water coming out of the fountain, I could hear the ducks screaming for bread as laughter could also be heard (of the people around who were feeding the ducks, I think). I could hear the jogging footsteps. The far away sounds were that of two men talking very loudly, a racing car and a cycle bell. Date: November 22, 2013 Observation through memory: It was dawn at 6:00 AM; the sky had beautiful yellowish and orange lights. The park was quiet. There was a lot of dew in the grass and the pebbles on the side of the jogging track were having dew drops upon them. Sight of hues of dawn, pebbles, soil, dew, trees and grasses have a soothing effect. Anyone could have slipped if he/she had tried to run on the grass. The air was cold and wet. There were some people who were jogging on the track while a few were feeding the ducks who were making a lot of noise. The trees were givin g a view of the haunted path with no leaves upon the branches. Their dark brown color was even darker. The ambience was very soothing and relaxing. The wind was blowing and one could feel the coldness in it. I could smell hot coffee and moisture in the air. Variety of Hues Fog, winters and Silence Fragrance of Coffee and moisture Date: November 23, 2013 Time: 10:00 AM Observation: The following day, I went to the park at 10:00 am in the morning. The reality was not at all this. There was fog and the wind was cold. The grass was all wet with dew. There

The Driving Forces Behind Crowdfunding Management Essay

The Driving Forces Behind Crowdfunding Management Essay How can you raise over 10,000,000 in funding for a consumer product, that is not yet produced, without any help from banks, angel investors or venture capitalists. How can you make hundreds of people pay for a meal they just might receive in a distant future? How is it possible to turn thousands of committed customers to also become shareholders without the process of an IPO? The answer is crowdfunding, which is a financing method that has exploded in popularity the last few years and that is changing the way many individuals, start-ups and businesses seek funding (kà ¤lla Forbes). The basic idea of crowdfunding is to raise external finance from a large audience (the crowd), where each individual provides a very small amount, instead of soliciting a small group of sophisticated investors (Schwienbacher Larralde, 2010, p. 1). The individuals, investors, customers or consumers that make up the crowd are called crowdfunders (Schwienbacher Larralde, 2010, p. 4) and usually pool their money together via the Internet (kà ¤lla) An example of how powerful crowdfunding can be is the Pebble E-paper Watch, a smartwatch for iPhone and Android, which raised $10,266,845 in investments during roughly one and a half months on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter (Kickstarter. 2012c). Another example is the Swedish hamburger restaurant Flippin Burgers, which got hundreds of individuals paying for a hamburger before the restaurant even existed and simultaneously financed the start-up of their now immensely popular venue in Stockholm (kà ¤lla). example of equity crowdfunding The crowdfunding market has grown with 557 % in the last five years and crowdfunding platforms raised a total of almost $1.5 billion in 2011, exceeding one million successful projects (Massolution, 2012). This number is predicted to double in 2012 with the current growth rate, which indicates that this nascent method of financing definitely has the potential to make a substantial change in the way individuals, start-ups and businesses seek financing (kà ¤lla). The long-term potential of crowdfunding is hard to predict, but currently the phenomena of crowdfunding looks promising. With scarce research on the subject, there are many aspects of crowdfunding that are still unexplored and with the projected industry growth, a demand will likely arise for a foundation of which entrepreneurs and managers can make informed decisions when hosting crowdfunding projects. 1.1. Background The background chapter will firstly cover the consumers involvement over time and its implications on crowdfunding, then a definition of crowdfunding will follow and lastly three different types of crowdfunding will be presented. 1.1.1. The Consumers Involvement Consumers have traditionally been positioned at the end of a firms value chain, but last decades their role have changed from not only being a target for marketing activities, to actually being a part of the value creation of a firms products or services (Hunt, Geiger-Oneto Varca, 2012, p. 347). The consumers have subsequently become key information sources, co-producers, partners for innovation and, finally, co-creators of value in the related literature (Ordanini, Miceli, Pizzetti Parasuraman, 2011, p. 444). This shift of focus on the role of the consumer has led to frequent activities by many firms to involve consumers and unidentified individuals in the process of product development and value creation (Zheng, Li, and Hou, 2011, p. 57). Involving consumers as co-producers and co-creators also provides value for the consumers and the process has been positively correlated with the consumers product satisfaction (Hunt et al., 2012, p. 347). This evolution of the consumers role was made possible initially by the rise of the Internet and later by technological innovations associated with Web 2.0 (Kleemann, Voß and Rieder, 2008, p. 5). Web 2.0 is a expression coined in 2004 noting a set of principles and practices that had emerged on the Internet, such as users being co-developers of open source development practices (OReilly, 2007, p. 19 30). Recently, the consumers role has also expanded to include investment support. This phenomenon of collective efforts by consumers and individuals to pool their money together via the Internet to invest in different projects is called crowdfunding (Ordanini et al., 2011, p. 444). Kleemann et al. (2008) argue that we are witnessing an emerge of a new consumer type called the working consumer. Ordanini et al. (2011) also describes the idea of crowdfunding, when consumers and individuals pay for producing and promoting a product instead of buying it, as a further step in the evolution of the consumers role. In association with these initiatives of involving the consumers as investors, there are several issues in the boundaries between marketing and finance, that are not yet fully explored and explained (Ordanini et al., 2011, p. 444). Zheng et al. (2011) have shown that consumers get involved in similar kind of initiatives to a great extent because of their intrinsic motivations. However, the field of crowdfunding is still unexplored when it comes to why and how consumers contribute with monetary investments, the selection of initiatives and what implications these behaviors within crowdfunding should have for firms and managers engaging in these kind of activities (Ordanini et al., 2011, p. 444). 1.1.2. A Definition of Crowdfunding Crowdfunding is defined as: an initiative undertaken to raise money for a new project proposed by someone, by collecting small to medium-size investments from several other people (i.e. a crowd) (Ordanini et al., 2011, p. 444) The actors involved in crowdfunding are the people who propose projects to be funded, the crowdfunding organization and the crowd itself. The crowdfunding organization serves as a form of hub, bringing together those who may want to invest in crowdfunding initiatives and those who seek investments for their projects via crowdfunding (Ordanini et al., 2011, p. 444-445). These crowdfunding organizations typically conduct their business via a website, (compare: http://www.indiegogo.com/, http://www.kickstarter.com/ and https://www.sellaband.com/) in which actors can advertise their crowdfunding initiatives to the crowd. The crowdfunding phenomena is much like regular investments, some efforts are successful and some are not. A popular crowdfunding site at the time of writing, Kickstarter, reports that 43.81 % of the crowdfunding projects at their website are successful   (Kickstarter. 2012d). They also report that they do not accept just any crowdfunding request and that about 25 % of submitted projects are not accepted to the site (Kickstarter. 2012b). This means, in practice, given that their numbers are correct, that about one third (0,75*0,4381à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‹â€ 1/3) of the attempted crowdfunding projects at the website in question are successful. One example of such a successful crowdfunding project in 2012 is Pebble E-paper Watch, which in total raised $10,266,845 in investments during roughly one and a half months (Kickstarter. 2012c). This demonstrates that it is indeed possible to obtain large investments from crowdfunding. 1.1.3. Different Types of Crowdfunding Crowdfunding can be divided into three different types of crowdfunding initiatives: (Schwienbacher Larralde, 2010, p. 13) Donations asking for donations rather than offering some kind of financial or remunerative incentive in exchange of an investment (Schwienbacher Larralde, 2010, p. 13). Example: Raising money for a good cause, like surgery of a diseased child. Passive investments giving some form of incentive in exchange for investments, these incentives can take many forms. In general a higher investments yields a higher incentive. Most crowdfunding like this does not offer any kind of possibility for the investor to participate in the project. This is in other words a form of crowdfunding where the entrepreneurs raise money without giving up control or having the customers actively involved (Schwienbacher Larralde, 2010, p. 13). Example: Pre-ordering of a product (such as a music CD). Active investments offering an active role in the initiative in exchange for investments. This could include offering shares of the profit or voting rights for features of the product. As in the case of passive investments, a higher investment in active investments generally yields a higher incentive. The entrepreneurs can in this way gain insight in their markets and receive valuable information of how the market thinks the product should be customized (Schwienbacher Larralde, 2010, p. 13-14). This type of investment with involvement in co-production, increases product satisfaction (Hunt, Geiger-Oneto Varca, 2012, p. 354). Example: Offering shares of profit from a concert, in proportion to how much money is invested. 1.2. Problem Discussion and Previous Research As a new emerging phenomena, crowdfunding and its consequences for businesses and consumers are not fully understood. For instance: what drives the engagement of consumers to invest in crowdfunding initiatives? (Ordanini et al., 2011, p. 444) One interesting way of approaching this question is stated by Ordanini, Miceli, Pizzetti and Parasuraman (2011, p. 446): Some extant literature streams are helpful in providing an appropriate backdrop for understanding crowd-funding, although insights from each stream only address some but not all aspects of this emerging phenomenon. This method provides an helpful framework for approaching the problem. The actors that invest in crowdfunding projects can be seen as both customers and investors (Schwienbacher Larralde, 2010, p. 13 Ordanini et al., 2011). This, in combination with the statement above, suggests that it is interesting to investigate why people participate and invest in crowdfunding projects both from a customer behavior perspective and an investment behavior perspective. Crowdfunding is as mentioned in 1.1.2 conducted online. If crowdfunders are seen as customers, the act of participating in crowdfunding can be compared to customer behavior in online shopping. Research in online customer behavior suggest that customers are motivated by extrinsic and intrinsic motivations when shopping online (Shang, Chen, Shen,   2005, p. 401). Since crowdfunding is a relatively new phenomena, the literature in the subject is far from extensive. To demonstrate this, examples of searches in Scopus and Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge as of the 25th of October 2012 will be presented below. Scopus and Web of Knowledge are extensive databases tracking citations with 47 million (SciVerse, 2012) and 49,4 million (Web of Knowledge, 2011) records respectively. A search for the term crowdfunding in Scopus rendered 5 results when limiting the results to articles. The same search in Web of Knowledge rendered 9 articles. Out of all these articles the oldest one was from 2011 (Ley Weaven, 2011), and the rest were published in 2012. This demonstrates that crowdfunding is indeed a new phenomena, and from these quick searches it can be concluded that the literature in crowdfunding is scarce. In a review of the literature found during the literature study which laid the foundation to this thesis (and included broader search terms than the above mentioned) it was found that it was only Ordanini, Miceli, Pizzetti Parasuraman (2011) who have studied how and why people engage in crowdfunding initiatives. The authors did this by conducting interviews with employees at three major crowdfunding platforms. Their findings revealed that crowdfunding participants motivations were very dependent on the type of project. Their study showed that the main motivation is patronage for music projects, monetary return for financial loaning and social participation for charity. However, their findings are based on interviews with informants from the crowdfunding intermediates without including any individual investors in their study. It appears to be a knowledge gap from an investor perspective, investigating the investors motivations to participate in crowdfunding initiatives. Since the actors engaging in crowdfunding initiatives can be seen as both customers and investors (Schwienbacher Larralde, 2010, p. 13 Ordanini et al., 2011), it is interesting to research why individuals get involved in crowdfunding both from a customer behavioral perspective and an investment behavioral perspective. To the extent of our knowledge, this has not been covered in the literature so far.   In summary, the literature on crowdfunding is scarce and while some aspects of crowdfunding has been studied, others remain unexplored. The purpose of this study is to attempt to fill the mentioned knowledge gap about motivations in the literature of crowdfunding and contribute to widening the research on crowdfunding. This thesis will examine the factors that motivate customers/investors to engage in passive crowdfunding projects. 1.3. Research Questions The problem description has resulted in the following research questions: 1. How do crowdfunders intrinsic and extrinsic motivations affect their size of investment in passive crowdfunding projects? 2. How important is the influence of other crowdfunders investments? 1.4. Purpose The purpose of this study is to research the relatively new phenomena of crowdfunding and examine the motivational factors that make people invest in crowdfunding projects. By examining why consumers invest in crowdfunding projects this study is intended to contribute to fill the knowledge gap identified in the problem description. The literature in general about crowdfunding is scarce and to our knowledge this type of study about crowdfunding has not been conducted before. Praktiska tillà ¤mpningar 1.5. Disposition The disposition of the thesis will be as follows, after this section a chapter about the theory used in this thesis will be presented, followed by a chapter about the research design and methods used. After that, the results of our surveys will be presented and a critical discussion about the results will follow. At the very end, the conclusions from the study will be presented and after that a list of references and appendixes will finalize this essay. 2. Theory This chapter will present the theory that lays the foundation to the thesis. First, customer behavior and relevant motivation theory will described and related to crowdfunding, including the important distinction made in this thesis between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Second, relevant investment behavior theory related to crowdfunding and an explanation of the phenomena of momentum in crowdfunding will be explained. 2.1 Customer Behavior As mentioned in the problem discussion, the individuals participating in crowdfunding projects can be seen as both customers and investors (Schwienbacher Larralde, 2010, p. 13 Ordanini et al., 2011). The first research question of this thesis is What motivates crowdfunders to invest in crowdfunding projects?, therefore motivation theories will be presented below. In general, motivation research   is directed to finding motives for peoples behavior (Sheth Mittal, 2004, p. 234). Within customer behavior, motivation research is aimed at finding out the conscious or subconscious reasons that motivate people to buy or not to buy a particular product, service or brand, or to patronize or avoid a store, or to accept or reject a marketing communication (ibid.). In this study, the research will be aimed at finding out the reasons why customers engage in crowdfunding initiatives, in other words, why they purchased the incentive offered at a given investment level. 2.1.1. Motivation Ryan Deci describes to be motivated as the means to be moved to do something (2000a, p. 54). A person who is motivated is a person who is inspired, energized or activated to act, where as an unmotivated person, feels no drive, incentive or stimulus to act. Motivation can be measured in terms of the level of motivation and the orientation of the motivation. The level of motivation refers to how much motivation an individual has, for example when a potential customer is out shopping for a car, if the salesman who assists the customer get paid in terms of commission it could be expected that this salesman has a higher level of motivation to make the sale than if the same salesman would have a fixed salary and no commission. The orientation of motivation refers to the underlying motives, goals and attitudes of the motivation, in other words why someone is motivated. An example of orientation of motivation is that a student may do her homework because she finds it interesting and intrigu ing, or the student may do her homework because her teacher and parents require her to do it. The student in this example may have equal level of motivation in both cases, but the nature of the motivation is entirely different because of its origin (Ryan Deci, 2000a, p. 54-55). A basic distinction of orientations of motivation is the distinction between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation: (Ryan Deci, 2000a, p. 55) 2.1.1.1. Intrinsic Motivation Intrinsic motivation is an orientation of motivation that origins in doing something for its inherent satisfactions rather than doing something to achieve an outcome. An intrinsically motivated person is a person who is motivated because an activity is fun, challenging, novel, interesting or simply put satisfying psychological needs (Ryan Deci, 2000a, p. 56-57). This can be compared to that children from the date of birth are active, curious and playful in despite of rewards being absent. It is a natural motivation that encourages assimilation, mastery, spontaneous interest and exploration that is so essential to cognitive and social development and that represents a principal source of enjoyment   and vitality throughout life (Ryan Deci, 2000b, p. 70). In crowdfunding, examples of intrinsic motivation could be to fund a technological project of a gadget because it is fun, or funding a project raising money for surgery of a child out of compassion. An important concept in the case of charity is warm-glove giving. Warm-glove giving means that donors are egoistically motivated by the act of giving and not only the altruism  Ã‚  Ã‚   (Andreoni, 1990, p. FIXA). 2.1.1.1. Extrinsic Motivation Extrinsic motivation is in contrast to intrinsic motivation when the origin of motivation lies in obtaining a separable outcome from performing an activity. Satisfying psychological needs is not necessarily related to extrinsic motivation, instead extrinsic motivation covers the continuum between amotivation and intrinsic motivation (Ryan Deci, 2000b, p. 71-72). An illustration of this is that a student may do her homework because she fears sanctions from her parents or because the student sincerely believe that doing the homework will be valuable for her future career. In the latter case intrinsic motivation and feeling of choice is present, while in the prior case external control and compliance is imminent. Even though both cases involves intentional behavior, the types of extrinsic motivation is different because they vary in autonomy. In crowdfunding, examples of extrinsic motivation could be to fund a technological project of a gadget because an incentive given is the actual gadget, or funding an artists concert for a share of the profit. 2.1.2 Shopping experience 2.2. Investment Behavior According to Ordanini et al. (2011), the emerging phenomena of crowdfunding has transformed consumers into investors. The consumers are contributing financially to other peoples or organizations projects and expect either a monetary or non-monetary incentive for their support. Thus, the characteristics of crowdfunding are very similar to financial investments and the behavior of crowdfunders can thereby resemble the investment behavior of individuals in financial markets   (Ordanini et al., 2011, p. 450). Herding Behavior in Online Shopping A large group (a crowd or mob) is likely to show examples of group behaviour 2.2.1. Herding Behavior in Financial Markets Crowdfunding projects seem to follow similar patterns where the financing of the crowdfunders triggers a chain reaction and facilitates rapid growth at a certain point (Ordanini et al., 2011, p. 457-458). This kind of snowball effect in the crowdfunders behavior, of something small building upon itself and becoming larger, can be found and be explained in several investment situations and can be both positive and negative. This investment behavior can be found as a negative effect in bank runs (Iyer Puri, 2012, p. 1414) and as a positive effect in rational herding in financial economics (Devenow Welch, 1996, p. 603). Bank runs are situations when bank customers withdraw their deposits from banks because they dont believe that the bank can keep them safe. This phenomenon has been a recurrent case in the history, from the Great Depression in the 1930s, to the financial crisis recently (Iyer Puri, 2012, p. 1414). The same pattern can be found in rational herding in the financial mark ets, when investors act based on other investors decisions rather than information about the investment itself (Masson, Gotur Lane, 2001, p. 100). Imitation and mimicry are two of the humans most basic instincts, which could partly explain why investors are influenced by the decisions of other investors in financial economics (Devenow Welch, 1996, p. 603). Rational herding occurs because of payoff externalities and information externalities. Payoff externalities is when investors benefit from other investors following their actions and information externalities is when investors gain useful information from observing previous investors decisions to a level where they consider it to be more reliable than their own information (Masson, Gotur Lane, 2001, p. 100). 2.2.2. Investment Momentum in Crowdfunding Ordanini et al. (2011) have found that a similar momentum in crowdfunding occurs at a recurrent stage of the crowdfunding process and they have identified three distinct phases in the investment process that are applicable to most crowdfunding projects. The first phase includes the investments reaching approximately half of the projects target capital and mostly consists of investments from people who are directly connected to the project or the network of the creator of the project. The emphasis in this phase is the involvement of people related to the project or the creator to accumulate a start funding underlying the rest of the crowdfunding process (Ordanini et al., 2011, p. 457-458). The second stage usually slows down in investment growth and is considered to be the most delicate and important phase, since it typically determines if a project fails or succeeds. Motivating and involving people in this phase is crucial to trigger the crowding process and the inability to do so is a very common reason for failure (Ordanini et al., 2011, p. 457-458). The third and last phase is when a project triggers a chain reaction that facilitates rapid growth to reach and, in some cases, exceed the investment target. The crowdfunders in this phase are primarily people without any original connection to the project and the investment process usually speeds up when it comes closer to the accumulated target investment. Ordanini et al. (2011) claim that the reason for this is that in many cases, the opportunity to invest will disappear as the project reaches its target investment. In this situation, the crowdfunders act very similar to investors in the financial markets and nobody want to miss the opportunity to invest and be a part of the project, which results in a chain reaction triggering more and more people to invest (Ordanini et al., 2011, p. 457-458). Crowdfunding momentum graph? (Ordanini) 3. Method This chapter will explain the method used in this thesis. Firstly a broad perspecitve of the method used will be presented, the Research approach and Research design. After that a more narrow view and thesis specific details will be presented; the Research strategy using surveys, the conduction of the survey and the data analysis. Finally the reliability, validity and replicability of this study and the presentation of data will be presented. 3.1. Research Approach As shown, crowdfunding is a subject on which there is little existing literature and scarce knowledge. Because of the insufficient prior research on the topic, it is simply not possible to define a theoretical framework for a hypothesis, which precludes a deductive research approach (Saunders et al., 2007, p. 127). The research questions emphasizes on why something is happening, rather than being able to describe what is happening, which implies that a more inductive approach would be appropriate (Saunders et al., 2007, p. 126). Although, an inductive approach involves drawing generalizable inferences out of observations (Bryman Bell, 2007, p. 14), which is not an accurate relationship between the theory and data in the study since the research questions are based on previous studies. The objective of the study is to discover new variables and relationships and to stress theory development, rather than theory generation or confirmation of existing theory. For such a study, Dubois G adde (2002) suggest an abductive approach which enables continuous interplay between theory and empirical observations. The abductive approach also allows the framework to be successively modified as a result of unanticipated findings and insights during the research process, which enables new conclusions when theoretical models and new concepts encounter the reality (Dubois Gadde, 2002, p. 559). 3.2. Research Design The research desigend is intended to generate evidence to answer the research questions that are established and to act as a framework for the research process (Bryman Bell, 2007, p. 39-40). The study entails data from several cases at a single point in time in order to collect quantifiable data to detect patterns of associations. Because of this, this study is based on a cross-sectional design, which is the study of a phenomena in a given point in time (Saunders, 2007, p. 155).   A cross-sectional design enables examining several variables to explore potential variations, which suits the research questions of identifying motivations and distinguishing differences between different categories in crowdfunding. In cross-sectional design research, the data is also collected simultaneously, in contrast to experimental design, and the data is quantifiable by a systematic method for measurement and benchmarking. However, with the cross-sectional design it is only possible to examine rel ationships without being certain of the casual influence, in contrast to an experimental design where variables are manipulated (Bryman Bell, 2007, p. 55). Although a cross-sectional research design is sufficiently adequate to serve as a foundation for drawing certain inferences (Bryman Bell, 2007, p. 56). 3.3. Sampling This study has been conducted on the following crowdfunding websites: http://www.rockthepost.com/ http://www.sponsume.com/ http://www.helpersunite.com/ http://peerbackers.com/ https://www.sellaband.com/ The reason for choosing the above mentioned crowdfunding websites is that they permit contacting the participants in their crowdfunding projects via the websites respective internal mail systems. There are a few more crowdfunding websites in which it is possible to contact investors, but some require that you have invested in the same project as the users that you want to contact and others have no compulsory contact information, meaning that the users manually would have to post their contact information in their description to be contactable through the website. Worth noting is that even in the websites chosen for this study, there are some users that can not be contacted because of the option of being anonymous when investing. The study is also, as mentioned in the research questions, limited to passive investments in crowdfunding. Within passive investments this thesis is also limited to only successful crowdfunding projects, because the crowdfunding websites appear to remove the unsuccessful projects as to not discourage potential clients. This makes it impossible to access information about unsuccessful crowdfunding projects without the owners of the websites collaboration. Collaborating with the crowdfunding websites themselves has though been judged to be out of the scope for this study due to time restrictions. A consequence of studying only successful crowdfunding projects is that the participants in our study are asked about their motivations retrospectively. This means that the participants investment motivations rather are their retrospective rationalization of their investments, than their decision making process prior to the investment. Therefore, it is impossible to determine to what degree the customers/investors were affected by any post-purchase rationalization or dissonance to justify their investments. In an attempt to counter this problem, only crowdfunders that have participated in crowdfunding projects that have recently ended has been contacted. The time frame chosen for this was one week. Within the crowdfunding projects chosen within the different categories of crowdfunding no sampling were made, instead all participants that were not anonymous were contacted. 3.4. Research Strategy: Surveys The research strategy chosen for this thesis is surveys in the form of Internet questionnaires. This research strategy has been chosen because it is common in business and management research and allow for collection of large amounts of data to a relatively small cost (Saunders, 2007, p. 144). Given the quota sampling and the internal mail systems provided by the crowdfunding sites, Internet surveys provided us with a simple solution of reaching out to all participants in selected crowdfunding projects, seeing as it was fairly easy to contact the crowdfunders via the internal mailing system. This allowed for generating findings that are representative for the entire population in the chosen crowdfunding projects. In comparison to interviews this is also a less time consuming strategy and seeing as this is a bachelor thesis, time is of the essence. Surveys allows for collecting large amounts of data for statistical analysis. The data collected from surveys could for example be used for suggesting possible relationships between variables and produce models for these relationships (Saunders, 2007, p. 144) (Bryman Bell, 2007, p. 56). This is much in line with our research questions.    3.4.1 Survey Design When designing a survey it is important to use standardized questions that will are likely to be interpreted in the same way by all respondents (Saunders, 2007, p. 393). The surveys sent out to the different crowdfunding projects where therefore identical. Language non native English speakers The questionnaire consists of XX questions in total, this because a questionnaire should not be longer than is necessary to meet the research objective and that it is generally believed that a shorter questionnaire has a higher response rate than a longer questionnaire (Saunders, Lewis, Thornhill, 2012, p. 436). Designing questions (Bryman Bell, 2007, p. 266-271)

Movie the Matrix and George Orwells 1984 Essay -- Compare Contrast Es

Movie the Matrix and George Orwell's 1984 Neo was now surrounded by people just like him who were searching for answers as to what the Matrix is. As they were sitting around the table, Mouse turns to Neo and says, "To deny our impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human." During the Agent Simulation Training with Morpheus, Neo follows his impulses and turns around to look at the woman in the red dress, Mouse's proud creation. Neo was only following his human instincts. Of course, Mouse's statement would only be true for all humans if we were actually allowed to have impulses. Winston Smith, in George Orwell's 1984, would certainly disagree with this notion of humans having impulses, and every one in Airstrip One, Oceania would not even know what an impulse is. Winston followed his impulses when he saw that creamy book at the window of a little junk shop on his way home from work one day. He had been stricken immediately by an overwhelming desire to possess it. And that's all an impulse is: a spontaneous incitement or a natural tendency usually other than rational. An impulse is a sudden emotion, usually uncontrollable and yet it had to be controlled. Winston follows his impulses and he buys the book. He then walks guiltily home because even with nothing written in it, that book was a compromising possession (9). But that simple act of purchasing an empty book could have caused him his life at that very moment. The citizens of Oceania are not allowed to have impulses and they were never taught what an impulse is to begin with. The Party could make it known that impulses of any kind are forbidden and will result to serving time in a forced labor camp or even death. The citizens of Oceania are denied the very thing th... ... knew from the start that Neo was the One. He is the One to protect humanity and secure its future. Winston, on the other hand, did not receive any of the answers that he was looking for. He wanted to know if he was the only one in possession of a memory, and he wanted to know if this was all there is to life. But the Party convicts him of thoughtcrime and changes everything he ever believed in. The Party made him learn about Big Brother, they made him accept him, and ultimately, they made him love Big Brother and the principles of Ingsoc, and Winston did. Winston failed and he will never know what came of his mother and his younger sister, and know what really happened to them. He will never know what life was like before this and what life is like afterwards. Works Cited Orwell, George. 1984 New York: New American Library, 1949. Movie: The Matrix, 1999

E-Commerce Security Issues

[pic] INTERNAL ASSIGNMENT Name of the candidate: ISHA Enrollment no. : 01215903911 Course: MBA Batch: 2011-13 Subject: E-business Subject code: MS-114 Topic of assignment: Is security a real or perceptual problem in Web commerce. Subject Teacher’s name: Ms. Sneha Chopra ABSTRACT This project report contains the study of â€Å"is security a real or perceptual problem in web commerce†. The content includes the security related issues being faced by the companies or organizations in their business through e-commerce. The tools being available in market to cope with such issues and a company named ZANTAZ being involved in solving such issues like threats, hacking, frauds, and theft etc. The example of such company facing hacking issues (Facebook) is also included in the study. The emerging security related issues how been tackled and their impact on the business transactions are being discussed. Table of content |S. no |Content |Pg no | | | | | |1. Introduction |4 | |2 |Advantages & disadvantages of e-commerce |5-7 | |3 |Security a real problem |7-9 | |4 |Security issues |10-11 | |5 |Security tools |12 | |6 |Ex-Facebook |13-14 | |7 |Conclusion |15 | |8 |Viper report |16 | |9 |Source |17 | INTRODUCTION According to Wiegand (1997): â€Å"Any form of economic activity conducted via electronic connections† is called e-commerce. Web commerce  is a form of  electronic commerce  that is conducted primarily through the  World Wide Web  and other aspects of the  Internet. In e-commerce the business transactions are carried out on internet and includes purchase and selling of goods and services. Many business firms set up their website in order to display their products & services for consumers to purchase or to get access by using web browser. Websites present the consumer with various options for searching and selecting products and services, which offer speed and convenience of shopping from home or the office. The consumer gains benefits of shopping 24 hours a day. [pic] Recently the Worldwide E-Commerce Fraud Prevention Network was formed by American Express and e-tailers such as Amazon. com and Buy. com to establish common grounds for reducing the threats created by increasing reliance on the Internet for commerce. Membership has expanded swiftly to now include 375 large and small players united to promote the growth of e-commerce in large part by keeping fraud to a minimum. Consumer privacy is becoming the most publicized security issue replacing theft and fraud as top concerns in e-commerce. The DDOS attacks demonstrated that business sites did not maintain adequate security protection and intrusion detection measures. Security, however, is not just a matter of technology; implementing technology without the proper organizational processes will not solve security problems. There are a number of critical social and organizational issues with security. The first is that the weak link in security is often users or employees, rather than the technology. The second is software engineering management, or managing how security technology is deployed. The third is the development of adequate organizational processes for risk management, separation of duties, and development of security policies, access control, and security assurance. Advantages of E-commerce Lower Cost Doing e-business is cost effective; it reduces logistical problems and provides a small business with competitive advantage with giants such as Amazon. com or General Motors. E commerce helps in reducing cost of business as it enables to get access to large population. Economy It helps in development of economy. It provides the business an international platform to do transactions and get a competitive advantage in the economy and increase the productivity. Higher Margins E-business along with higher margins helps in gaining more control and flexibility and enables to save time when manual transactions are done electronically. Better Customer Service E–commerce means better and quicker customer service. Online customer service makes customers happier. Instead of calling your company on the phone, the web merchant gives customers direct to their personal account online. This saves time and money Quick Comparison Shopping E–commerce helps consumers to comparison shop. Automated online shopping assistants called hop bots scour online stores and find deals on everything from apples to printer ribbons. Productivity Gains Implementing the web throughout an organization means improved productivity. For example IBM incorporated the web into every corner of the firm – products, marketing, and practices. Teamwork It has made the interaction easier through e-mails. It has transformed the way organizations interact with suppliers, vendors, business partners, and customers–mail is one example of how people collaborate to exchange information and work on solutions Information Sharing, Convenience, and Control Electronic commerce improves information sharing between merchants and customers and promotes quick, just–in–time deliveries. They can interact at any time through internet without any traffic jams, no crowds etc. Disadvantages of E–commerce Security Security continues to be a problem for online businesses. A customer does not feel confident about the secrecy of the payment process before they purchase anything. Unauthorized access and hacking of information are the major concern. System and Data Integrity Data protection and the integrity of the system are serious concerns. Viruses cause unnecessary delays, file backups, storage problems, danger of hackers and other similar difficulties. System Scalability A business develops an interactive interface with customers with a website. A website must be scalable, or upgradable on a regular basis to make sure customers remain with them. E–commerce is not free Establishing a web based organization involves huge funds or investment by the management. Brands are expected to lower search costs, build trust, and communicate quality. Customer Relations Problems It is the foremost objective of the organization to maintain the customer’s loyalty with them because they cannot survive in the market for long term without them. Products People won't buy online People mostly don’t prefer to buy furniture’s for ex, online because they want to sit on it feel the texture of the fabric and therefore a website called furniture. com or living. com, have failed. Fake sites There are many bad sites which eat up customers’ money. Product quality There is no guarantee of product quality as customers cannot touch or test the product before the deal. [pic] Security is a real problem in web commerce. Security issues are rising day by day in web commerce and have become a major problem in the economy. The opaqueness of data collection methods on the World Wide Web has given rise to privacy concerns among Internet users. The number of hacking cases has risen and fake sites are countless on net. From this we can assume how secure our business transactions on the internet. To overcome this problem many software such as firewall, etc has been developed and installed in the organizations database so that the information is been secured from outside users. Security means â€Å"freedom from risk and danger†. In e-business security is the main concern of the business. How safe you are while conducting business on internet is the issue of nowadays. Consumers fear the loss of their financial data, and e-commerce sites fear the financial losses. Studies have shown that consumers are concerned about the lack of privacy on the Web. For example, Ryker et al. [2002] quote a Price Water House Coopers study indicating that 92% of consumers are worried about privacy, with 61% refuses to shop online. Forrester research has found that privacy fears inhibit nearly 50% of consumers from shopping online and suggests that consumers often decline to provide data requested by websites and provide false information. Online privacy and online security are distinct. Privacy concerns arise when consumers' personal information is retrieved online without the consumer's consent or knowledge and is sold to third parties without the consumer's consent or knowledge. Whereas, online security relates to the confidentiality of the information, system's ability to secure itself against the conduct of unauthorized third parties, such us hackers, who attempt to access the Web site's stored information. Security Issues in web commerce:- Three types of security threats 1. Denial of service, 2. Unauthorized access, and 3. Theft and fraud 1). Denial of Service (DOS):- Two primary types of DOS attacks: spamming and viruses a) Spamming Sending unsolicited commercial emails to individuals E-mail bombing caused by a hacker targeting one computer or network, and sending thousands of email messages to it. Surfing involves hackers placing software agents onto a third-party system and setting it off to send requests to an intended target. DDOS (distributed denial of service attacks) involves hackers placing software agents onto a number of third-party systems and setting them off to simultaneously send requests to an intended target. b) Viruses: self-replicating computer programs designed to perform unwanted events c) Worms: special viruses that spread using direct Internet connections d) Trojan Horses: disguised as legitimate software and trick users into running the program 2). Unauthorized access a) Illegal access to systems, applications or data b) Passive unauthorized access – listening to communications channel for finding secrets. May use content for damaging purposes c) Active unauthorized access. †¢ Modifying system or data. †¢ Message stream modification †¢ Changes intent of messages, e. g. to abort or delay a negotiation on a contract d) Masquerading or spoofing – sending a message that appears to be from someone else. †¢ Impersonating another user at the â€Å"name† (changing the â€Å"From† field) or IP levels (changing the source and/or destination IP address of packets in the network) e) Sniffers – software that illegally access data traversing across the network. 3). Theft and fraud a. Fraud occurs when the stolen data is used or modified b. Theft of software via illegal copying from company’s servers c. Theft of hardware, specifically laptops, pen drive, cds, hard disk etc. E-COMMERCE SECURITY TOOLS:- 1. Firewalls- software and hardware 2. digital certificates 3. digital signatures 4. ublic key infrastructure 5. encryption software 6. Biometrics- retinal scan, fingerprints, voice, etc. 7. passwords 8. Locks and bars- network operations centers. An example:- Driven by information preservation rules, corporations within the financial services sector have begun to seek assistance from companies such as ZANTAZ, a leading provider of Compliance Technology Solutions. With the help of companies like ZANTAZ, a corporation can deploy proactive compliance initiatives that: a) Automatically capture, archive and instantly retrieve email, attachments, and IM; b) Monitor and supervise email, IM and other electronic communication; and ) Quickly restore data from back-up tapes in the event of an audit, litigation or investigation. Companies like ZANTAZ have gone to great lengths to empower a corporation to quickly, efficiently, and cost effectively deploy proactive compliance solutions associated with electronic communication preservation, supervision, and record-keeping regulations. Example- â€Å"Facebook – security issues† One of the example of the company facing security issue worldwide is Facebook. Facebook has been under heavy attack since the last two year as the popular social networking site has become the victim of a severe hacking spree affecting nearly every user on the site. it has become a severe problem worldwide and is still increasing. The hacks do not seem to have specific targets but happen at random with some user’s newsfeeds being littered with objectionable content and others not seeing anything. This led to the temporarily blocking of site and unable to access the information by the users. Some of the hacks happen in the form of â€Å"click' spam being sent out. A popular spam involves Kim Kardashian with a link to a video. It will say something like â€Å"After watching this video I lost all respect for Kim. † Upon clicking, the link takes the unsuspecting person nowhere, and hacks the account sending the same spam to all of the user’s friends. Other spams include mass messages and tagged photos leading people to believe they are in the link or involved with it because it is not personalized. Those will also have the same result, and continue the spamming of others walls. Impact on customer Users are outraged and some are considering deleting their profiles. Actress and director, Courtney Zito, told The ChristianPost, â€Å"I have 5000 friends. My feed is littered with porn. I can't even check my news feed with anyone around because of it†. This led to the decrease in the market share and people have removed their pictures and are now afraid of posting anything on profile. Computer hackers attempt to break into at least 600,000 Facebook accounts using stolen username and password details every day, the social networking giant have revealed. The latest revelation came after Facebook issued a security announcement promoting its new ‘Trusted Friends' password restoration technique. Many of the hackers are caught out by additional authentication questions, such as asking users to identify friends in pictures, but many attempts are successful. this problem has helped contribute to the demise of Myspace a couple of years ago. The spam ran rampant ultimately causing many of the users to switch to the â€Å"safer† Facebook. [pic] Conclusion Security is now understood to be largely imperfect, the continual cat-and-mouse game of security expert and hacker. Important technical developments have been deployed in the last five years; however, it is clear that organizational policies may play as an important role in site security. The results of this study provide support for the assumption that consumer e-commerce adoption/rejection decisions are determined by rational behavior in terms of channel net value seen as the perceived balance of power between the overall benefits that are likely to accrue by using the Internet, and the overall barriers encountered to using it or to deriving the sought benefits: Internet adopters, and especially the consumers who have embraced online shopping, perceive the total benefits of e-commerce as exceeding the total impediments to embracing/using e-commerce, whereas Internet non-adopters consider the impediments to e-commerce as drastically surpassing the benefits offered by the commercial Internet. VIPER REPORT [pic] SOURCES 1. http://www. allbusiness. om/technology/software-services-applications-online-security/11565464-1. html#ixzz1kNGJjj94 2. http://www. allbusiness. com/technology/software-services-applications-online-security/11565464-1. html 3. www. manjeetss. com/art icles/advantagesdisadvantagesecommerce. htm 4. http://www. allbusiness. com/technology/software-services-applications-online-security/11565464-1. html#ixzz1kNOllPwd 5. http://www. pcworld. com/article/160545/facebook_hit_by_five_security_problems_in_one_week. html 6. http://www. dailymail. co. uk/sciencetech/article-2054994/Facebook-hackers-attempting-crack-600-000-accounts-day. html 7. http://www. eecs. umich. edu/~ackerm/pub/03e05/EC-privacy. ackerman. pdf

A Book Report on Irene Hunt’s

Irene Hunt’s No Promises in the Wind (1975) is a story about the plight of fifteen-year-old Josh and his brother Joey, set in the desperate state of the U.S. during the Great Depression of the ‘30s.The two boys hailed from Chicago, born from a middle class family. The Stock market crashed signaling the start of the Depression (Great Depression, 2005). This has been â€Å"particularly severe in Chicago because of the city's reliance on manufacturing, the hardest hit sector nationally† (Deutsch, 2005).   More than half of the workforce lost their jobs (Deutsch, 2005), including their father, Stephan. When this happened their father changed from someone who is kindhearted into a bitter, angry man.Those times were ridden with problems and he takes his anger out on his oldest son Josh. But rather, it could be supposed that he is angrier with himself for being helpless in their situation, what with the pressures of providing for his family.Desperate times necessitate that kids those days mature early, and even though Josh is a mere boy, he leaves his family with his best friend Howie with dreams of being musicians, his little brother Joey tagging along.The brothers experience a devastating blow when Howie got run over by a train. When they continued to venture forth, they realize how hard to make it out in the real world. They were cold and hungry, at times even resorting to begging for food.They meet a lot of interesting and endearing people along the way and saw how people from different parts of the country, such as Louisiana and Nebraska, were being affected by the Depression. Such people like Lonnie, a generous trucker who tries to help them whenever he can despite tough times, and Emily, a beautiful and attractive a circus clown.Hunt paints a harrowing portrait of that period and how desperate times change people, emotionally and psychologically. She shows that when the going gets tough, man’s instincts for survival take over, even at the sake of common goodness and humanity. On the other side of the coin, it is also a testament that kindness still endures.The story is largely character driven, and the author makes good use of her skill in portraying emotions, especially how the Depression changed people. With deft descriptions and stirring language, she conjures a moving image of a desperate America, and what people do in order to survive. Some parts could seem too unrealistic, such as Josh’s illogical ambitions and the brothers’ seemingly continuous luck, but in the end it is successful in providing us a glimpse of the general populace’s real state of living during that period.ReferencesDeutsch, T. (2005).   Great Depression. In The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. Retrieved November 22, 2005, from http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/542.htmlGreat Depression. (2005). In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 23, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_DepressionHunt, I. (1 975). No Promises in the Wind.   Chicago: Follet Publishing.