Law for Business Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Law for Business Case - Essay Example The point of perfection in a contract of sale has to be distinguished from the point of perfection in other contracts. For instance, in a pawn or pledge, the owner of the thing has to deliver the personal property to be pawned or pledged as is commonly understood even in layman terms.5 Hence, if X tells Y that the former wants to borrow money from the latter with a pawn or pledge of a gold ring as security, the contract of pawn or pledge is perfected when X physically brings the gold ring to Y. Going back to sale, since it is a consensual contract, any loss of, or damage caused unto, the thing or object is to be borne by the buyer after the perfection of the contract. In the illustration given above, let it be presumed that it was Monday when A makes the offer to sell and when B accepts it. On Tuesday, C steals the car. Under that circumstance, the legal implications will be that B suffers the loss and his recourse is not against A but against C whom he (B) can run after for the car-napping or theft. For further ramification, let it be supposed that B asks A to deliver the car to him (B) and A thus drives the car from his (A's) house to the place designated by B. While on the way, the car is hit by a lightning. In that case, B still shoulders the loss. What if, on the way, A bumps a tree because of his negligence and the car is destroyed Who suffers the loss In that case, A suffers the loss. The reason for the latter does not have any bearing anymore as to whether or not the contract of sale was perfected. Instead, A shoulders the loss because of his negligence in delivering the car to B and A's liability is founded on the principles of common law on torts and damages. In the case at bar, Toys4U Ltd became the owner of the merchandise when Megastores accepted the order. Under the general rule, therefore, Toys4U Ltd should be the one to shoulder the loss of all the three damaged toys. In the present situation, it is not so. Megastores is liable for the loss of the two toys which were damaged by the fork lift truck operator while still in the custody of Megastores. This liability is anchored on the fact that the damage was caused by the negligence or imprudence of the fork lift truck operator of Megastores. Under the legal precept of respondeat superior, the liability of the servant is the liability of the master. That is the universal rule on one who acts through another.6 Stated in another way, the responsibility of the employee is the responsibility of the employer. As to the third toy which was damaged in transit, Megastores is not liable for the same. As mentioned earlier, Toys4U Ltd became the owner of the goods when it placed the order for th e toys and accepted by Megastores. From thence, Toys4U Ltd shoulders any loss or damage. As mentioned above, it has to be noted that the general rule is that the buyer shoulders the loss if the same is sustained after the perfection of the contract. There can however be conditions which the parties may agree on. For example, John offers to sell his gun to Henry. Henry accepts the offer on the condition that John delivers the specific pistol on Monday evening at his (Henry's) residence and that upon receipt of the firearm, he (Henry) pays John.

Strategic Choice and Evaluation Research Proposal

Strategic Choice and Evaluation - Research Proposal Example In accordance to this, an evaluation would be made on the new objective conditions as well as the internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Value Discipline Every business organization must adhere to a certain value discipline in order to succeed. This is actually a principle that the organization must uphold always as it continues to operate. There are three types of basic value discipline from this business may choose from; namely, operational excellence, product leadership, and customer intimacy. While it does not necessarily disregard the both operational excellence and product leadership, this daycare facility puts heavy emphasis on customer intimacy. The organization managing this believes that it is through being in close contact always with the children and their parents could ideas arise regarding the continuous development of the services being provided. Customer intimacy is â€Å"a value discipline based on development and nurturing of customer relationships and the customized delivery of product and service solutions for those customers† (Marks 2002, p. 14). ... Apparently, by adhering to the value discipline of customer intimacy, this daycare business may also realize the operational excellence. It must be noted that in this particular kind of business, the best gauge for the effectiveness of its operation is through determining the level of satisfaction of the children and parents. Unlike other businesses that produce actual commodities, operational excellence here could not be measured by the quantity and quality of products produced at a short time and at the least cost. If the children learn and enjoy during their stay and if the parents appreciate the work that is being done then the operation of the facility may be considered as satisfactory or even outstanding. This organization does not believe that it should strive to be a leader in the daycare business. It possesses the perspective that daycare businesses should not put a premium on competition because this does not have a good effect on the training of the children in general. Ho wever, by striving to practice customer intimacy, it may also develop operational excellence, which should then result in leadership in this particular field of business. The point, however, is that is focus should be more on customer intimacy and the rest would inevitable follow. Generic Strategies Since the daycare facility to be established and operated is still a business, it must maintain its viability not just to generate the desired target profits but also to continue providing services to the community. As pointed out earlier in the mission and goal of this business, although profit is an important concern, the ability to provide service to the children and their working parents share is also a significant aspect. In order to

Assessment and Feedback Essay Example for Free

Assessment and Feedback Essay Assessment drives the choices students make about their learning. It is widely recognised that assessment and feedback contain the strongest potential to change how, and what, students do to succeed in their learning (Ramsden, 2003). This Effective Teaching Guide on Assessment provides practical suggestions on assessment and feedback. Assessment of Learning and Assessment for Learning David Boud, a recognised researcher and scholar of assessment in higher education, suggests that assessment has many purposes, but particularly to help students to improve their learning and certify students’ learning. These two purposes lead to different ways of thinking about what, how, and when to assess students: |Assessment OF Learning |Assessment FOR Learning | |Focused on learning that has already happened; |Focused on learning for the future; | |Making a judgement about final performance; |Goal is to provide useful information to students about how to learn | |Designed to discriminate between students’ achievement and performance; |more effectively; | | Focused on grades, precision and measurement; |Helps students to identify what they do and don’t know – focus is on | |Concerned that tasks are reliable and valid; |improvement; and, | |Testing usually takes place under ‘standardised’ conditions; and, |Develops students’ judgements about the quality of their work – and how | |Grade contributes to final certification. |to improve. | According to Boud and Associate’s Seven Propositions for Assessment Reform in Higher Education (2010), assessment has most effect when: 1. Assessment is used to engage students in learning that is productive (including the need for assessment to be designed to focus students on learning); 2. Feedback is used to actively improve student learning; 3. Students and teachers become responsible partners in learning and assessment; 4. Students are inducted into the assessment practices and cultures of higher education; 5. Assessment for learning is placed at the centre of subject and project design; 6. Assessment for learning is a focus for staff and institutional development; and, 7. Assessment provides inclusive and trustworthy representation of student achievement. The power of feedback Feedback plays an important role in improving students’ learning. A useful summary is that provided by Gibbs and Simpson’s (2004). In their meta-study of the research about how assessment and feedback support student learning, 7 of their 10 identified conditions relate to feedback, and students’ understanding of feedback. These are:  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Sufficient feedback is provided, both often enough and in enough detail; †¢ Feedback focuses on students’ performance, on their learning and on actions under the students’ control, rather than on the students themselves and on their characteristics; †¢ Feedback is timely in that it is received by students while it still matters to them, and in time for them to pay attention to further learning or receive further assistance; †¢ Feedback is appropriate to the purpose of the assignment and to its criteria for success; †¢ Feedback is appropriate, in relation to students’ understanding of what they are supposed to be doing; †¢ Feedback is received and attended to; and, †¢ Feedback is acted on by the student. Hounsell (2004) also makes the following points about feedback: †¢ It can be extrinsic (assessment-focused) or intrinsic (activity and practice-based); †¢ It can be immediate and verbal (in order to address the potential lack of engagement when it arrives after an assessment); †¢ It can be provided to be a whole class; †¢ It can be many to many where students are involved in identifying the strengths and weaknesses (peer feedback); and, †¢ Feedback can be a loop – it can be offered on unfinished work. Another useful idea is feed-forward. Feed-forward encourages students to use something like a marking rubric (also captured by the idea of criteria and standards) to help plan their approach to an assessment. While a marking rubric is routinely used by university teachers to mark/grade students’ work (as an expression of what a student needs to demonstrate (and the level they need to achieve) to receive a particular grade), the idea of feed-forward is about encouraging students to use that same information in the rubric to plan their work, and perhaps even, to self-assess it before submitting it for formal feedback. In summary: Feedback example: Develop a marking rubric as a cover sheet. The rubric identifies the elements of the assignment, together with a breakdown of marks for each element or a description of the standard for an A, B, C, D, P etc. Feed-forward example: Provide the marking rubric to students before the assignment is due so that they clearly understand what’s expected, the levels of achievement, and can plan their approach accordingly. In marking student work, you’ll need a suite of feedback techniques. Remember, if you’re going to be spending a lot of time providing feedback, you want to make sure that students read, use and engage with your feedback to improve their next assignment. The best way to do that is to have a range of techniques that you can draw on, when you need to. The table below describes some feedback techniques. |Technique |Why use this technique? |How would I use this technique? | |Use a marking rubric that contains information |To encourage students to engage, wrestle |Set aside time to discuss the rubric with students| |about criteria and standards. Offer it to |with and develop an understanding of the |in class. Provide examples of what an A, B, C, D | |students so that they can use it to plan high |criteria and standards related to an |and P level answer /assignment looks like. Explain| |achieving work. |assessment task before embarking on their|the differences to students and engage them in a | | |work. |dialogue. Get them to mark assignments samples so | | | |that they have to engage with the criteria and | | | |standards before embarking on their own | | | |assignment. | |Provide verbal ‘global’ feedback to the whole |To emphasise the common achievements and |As you mark assignments, make a list of 3 things | |class. |errors made across all assignments within|done well, and 3 things in need of improvement | | |a student cohort. |across the whole cohort. Use the next available | | | |class to provide feedback to the whole cohort. Be | | | |specific and provide an example. Post a summary on| | | |Moodle. | |Provide written feedback only. The mark/grade |To focus students’ improvement efforts on| | |is released only after students demonstrate a |the written comment rather than the | | |plan for improvement. |number/grade. The technique assumes that | | | |the learning for students is located in | | | |the staff comments. | | |Invite students to tell you 2-3 specific |To develop students’ capacity to |Ask students to write these 2-3 elements somewhere| |elements of the assignment they would like you |self-assess the quality of their |on the assignment cover sheet before submitting | |to focus your feedback on. |submitted work. |it. Your feedback on these elements does not need | | | |to be extensive but they warrant comment. | |Ask students to indicate the grade (ie, A, B, |To encourage students to engage with the |Invite students to write a 100 word justification | |C, D) they think their assignment should |criteria and standards for the assignment|about the grade they’ve nominated. Your final | |receive. |as part of their planning. |feedback and grade does not need to align with the| | | |students but you may wish to note any differences | | | |in each of your perceptions about the quality of | | | |the work. | |Encourage students to demonstrate/write how |For students to demonstrate how they have|Make this aspect a ‘hurdle’ requirement – to be | |they’ve used your feedback as part of the next |used feedback to improve future learning. |submitted with the next immediate assignment. | |assignment. | | | One observation you might make about each of these techniques is that they are focused on: (i) engaging students with the criteria and standards, and (ii) with what the student does with the feedback they receive. If you’d like to read more about these two ideas (and others like them), two articles may be especially useful to you: Rust, Price O’Donovan (2003) and Price, O’Donovan Rust (2004). Consistency and fairness in marking and feedback Consistency in marking, or moderation, is aimed at ensuring fairness in marking, and requires finding or establishing agreement between markers. Making sure that assignments contain criteria and standards is a good start because the expectations involved are clear to the student and clear to the marker. Although this does not absolve the marker from interpreting students’ work, without criteria or standards, the job of marking ends up being much harder. The procedures for marking are set out in the University’s Assessment Procedures (an excerpt of the principles is below): Where there is more than one marker, selected pieces of work from each assessment task should be reviewed by the subject coordinator to verify the level and consistency of the marks allocated by the marker. This process, called moderation, increases the reliability of the assessment process and application of standards, promotes consistency, supports objectivity and establishes a shared understanding of standards and fairness in assessment. The university also has a grading schema with a range of Pass grades. |80-100% |A | |70-79% |B | |60-69% |C | |50-59% |D | |Ungraded |P (may also denote satisfactory completion of a Masters Prelim course of | | |postgraduate thesis) | Graduate capabilities Alongside the conventional grading schema, from 2012, all commencing first year students will receive a result on the achievement of the university’s six graduate capabilities at the end of the year: †¢ Writing †¢ Speaking †¢ Inquiry/Research †¢ Critical thinking †¢ Creative Problem-solving †¢ Teamwork There are some subjects which have been designated cornerstone, mid-point and capstone status. This means that their curriculum has been designed to teach, assess, provide feedback and report specifically on these graduate capabilities. For each graduate capability, students will receive one of three results: exceeded expectations, met expectations or did not meet expectations. Each faculty has carefully crafted a description of what these standards look like. It may be the case that you will be asked to provide feedback to students about their graduate capability achievement as well. Because faculties will have already done substantial work outlining those standards, it is likely you will be asked to offer students that feedback. Summary When considered together, assessment and feedback are incredibly powerful levers for influencing the direction of students’ efforts, and their learning. For many students, the assessment in the subject is the actual curriculum. It is largely students’ reading and perception of what the assessment demands of them which is a key determinant in how they spend their time in a subject. Therefore, the messages that students take away about assessment from the documents; the Subject Guide; from interaction with other students, are important considerations. In the second week, you will discover just how crucial feedback is to this process and how the adoption of standards and criteria will help you mark and grade more efficiently and effectively. References Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2004). Conditions Under Which Assessment Supports Student Learning. Learning and Teaching, Issue 1, pp: 3-31. Hattie, J. Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112. Hounsell, D. (2004). Reinventing Feedback in the Contemporary Scottish University. Scottish Quality Enhancement Workshop on Assessment, University of Glasgow [available online at: www. enhancementthemes. ac. uk/documents/events/20040604/Hounsellpaper. pdf]. O’Donovan, B. , Price, M. , Rust, C. (2004). Know what I mean? Enhancing student understanding of assessment standards and criteria. Teaching in Higher Education, 9(3), 325-335. Orrell, J. (2006). Assessment beyond intuition. Central Queensland University [available online at: http://www. learning. cq. edu. au/FCWViewer/view. do? page=8896, accessed Feb 2011]. Price, M. , O’Donovan, B. , Rust, C. (2004). Know what I mean? Enhancing student understanding of assessment standards and criteria. Teaching in Higher Education, 9(3), 325-335. Ramsden, P. (2003). Learning to teach in higher education. (2nd edition). Routledge, NY London. Rust, C. , Price, M. , O’Donovan, B. (2003). Improving Students’ Learning by Developing their Understanding of Assessment Criteria and Processes. Assessment Evaluation in Higher Education, 28(2), 147-164. Taylor, J. (2008). Assessment in First Year University: A model to manage transition. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 5(1).

Aim Of Molecular Gastronomy Media Essay

Aim Of Molecular Gastronomy Media Essay The art of cooking is as old as humanity and cooking is such an important part of our world which obviously needs scientific attention. Although science has contributed to food safety, hygiene and nutritional aspects, little has been done towards innovation and invention of new dishes. The ancient Greek words, gastro means stomach and nomos means law, collectively termed as gastronomy, which in contemporary hospitality industry means food and culture. It generally refers to the study of relationship between food and culture with interdisciplinary approaches. This literature attempts to explain molecular gastronomy, its origin and evolution, along with its relevance and contributions to the contemporary hospitality industry. Cooking and gastronomy Even though molecular gastronomy has attracted media attention for quite a while, still there is confusion about the true meaning of the term. To explain this, cooking and gastronomy has to be distinguished first. Cooking is the preparation of raw food into edible, whereas gastronomy is the knowledge of whatever concerns mans nourishment. Gastronomy is about chemical and physical transformation behind the preparation of any food, for example, the reason behind egg white puffs up when whipped or mayonnaise becomes firm. (This, 2006). According to HerveThis, the science of food is not new but dates back to second century BC, when preparation of meat stock-the aqueous solution obtained by thermal processing of animal tissues in water-has been of great interest. Since then, scientists have been interested in food and cooking which gave way to molecular gastronomy. If culinary history is scrutinised, it will be clear that, initially food experts studied the culinary science to steer clear of blind assumptions and unscientific ways of cooking. But today, the science of food has reached its extreme in the form of molecular gastronomy, which chemically examines the food and cooking in its molecular level to give a new face for cooking and change the total concept of commercial cooking in near future. Molecular gastronomy The scientific discipline dedicated to culinary industry and to gastronomical phenomena in general has been called molecular gastronomy the late Nicholas Kurti and HerveThis (This, 2005). Molecular gastronomy can also be defined as a field that attempts to improve the culinary techniques through understanding the composition and chemical transformations occurring in food during the process of cooking (Ankeny, Year Unknown). Gastronomy or molecular gastronomy is the science just like any other science in the world, which studies the cause and effect of anything that happens during cooking including the structural difference in same cooking ingredients of different quality, which have an effect on the final product. If we can answer the question, we can correct a mistake, use this knowledge to improve the cooking process or even invent new dishes or ways to prepare food. For example, if we know that when an egg is cooked, water evaporates, the proteins denature and polymerize to enclos e water, we can even use substitute methods to cook it, like adding alcohol to it, which denature the egg proteins and gives the same result. Molecular gastronomy also deals with the study of human senses and perception of taste, aroma, texture and temperature, in short, the sensory science known as chemesthesis (berham et. al, 2010). It studies the perception of senses in molecular level in order to understand how different dishes are perceived as awful, average, good or delicious, when they are made of similar ingredients. Although chemesthesis of human beings are the same, people of different genre appreciates different types of food. For example westerners cooking style is entirely different from Asians, and while Asians appreciate spicy food, most westerners do not. At a glance, molecular gastronomy can be described as applying the techniques of food scientists to fine dining drying, liquefying, gassing, freezing and generally transforming ingredients into surprising new forms and textures while maintaining the flavours. Early converts include French two-star chef Pierre Gagnaire, who added scallops with liquorice milk to his menu in 1991 (Hill. B, 2009). Aim of molecular gastronomy Being the science of cooking, molecular gastronomy has a few aims in the field of domestic and commercial cooking. It endeavours to remodel and scrutinise existing recipes, introduce new tools, products and methods, invent new dishes from the acquiring knowledge and use the appeal of food to promote food science (This, 2006). Before analysing the aims, a significant question is that, who is actually interested in molecular gastronomy? Is it the chefs who are interested in chemical and physical science of food or scientists who are interested in food and cooking? Answer could go both the ways. Chefs are always interested in innovation in culinary art, which obviously needed scientific help to explain the reasons for transformation that occur in the cooking process. For remodelling a recipe or innovating a new dish they had to understand what actually happens to any food when it undergoes different forms of cooking. For this reason they needed scientific help to explain the reasons behind any cooking process or transformation. But at the same time, scientists are interested in the scientific aspects of food rather than innovation and remodelling recipes. Hence, molecular gastronomy can be said to be teamwork of food science and cooking or in other words, chefs and scientists. However, chefs made use of scie ntific explanation of cooking processes which resulted in innovation in food industry or more apparently molecular gastronomy. But today, with worldwide recognition of molecular gastronomy, it has evolved as a collaboration of chefs, scientists, companies in food industry and culinary schools. In addition, efforts are being made to incorporate the new science into culinary schools to impart knowledge of molecular gastronomy into upcoming industry professionals to provide a new visage to the food and beverage industry. Continuing with the aims of molecular gastronomy, remodelling and scrutinising the existing recipes is one of the primary attempts, initially by educating the professionals about the chances of scientific approach to cooking art. Complex disperse systems formalism (This, 2006) was introduced to describe the microscopic structure of preparations with different phases, to help in this attempt. Consequently, many of the existing recipes has been modernized or modified to correct the mistakes, attain a better product and to better favour the palate of the customer. Educational efforts are equally important to standardise these remodelled recipes to achieve consistency. For this reason, several programmes were introduced in culinary schools internationally. In 2001, the experimental workshop on flavour was created in French schools. Universities in various countries, such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Argentina have set up professorships in this discipline. Since then, Canada and France have introduced new syllabus for culinary schools to include knowledge obtained from molecular gastronomy. In 2005, the Institute for Advanced Studies on Flavour, Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts was created in Reims, France, to promote gastronomy knowledge, including molecular gastronomy. New or remodelled recipes to a great extent involve new cooking techniques which need new systems and tools. So, quite obviously, molecular gastronomy is introducing or giving way to new cooking tools and techniques, taking the art of cooking into another level. In terms of new products, with the help of molecular gastronomy, it is now possible to customise the food to the need of different people with different diet requirements, without restricting the taste and palatability of their meals. For example, now a day, caviar can be artificially made (in fact something looks and tastes like caviar) from fruits and chemicals. Similarly, using the secret of food chemistry, different ingredients can be used to make several dishes which look, smells and tastes like original dishes, which have no ingredients of the original dish. Even though the dishes tastes and feel like original, the ingredients can be different, thus giving us an opportunity to try different dishes with in the diet restr ictions or in other words, altering an unhealthy food into healthy one without altering the original taste of the same. Health programmes that promote a balanced diet cannot succeed if people are unable to make intelligent choices about food. Traditional cooking is not a guarantee either for healthy food or for a rational preparation of food. This is where the scientific programme of molecular gastronomy can be useful. Science is the basis for new technology and innovation and it is not different in gastronomy. The achievements of science in the field of gastronomy have won a definite recognition worldwide. However, for chefs, and hopefully scientists as well, the main aim is to surprise and delight their guests with exciting, tasty and healthy food. Molecular gastronomy in contemporary hospitality industry With the development of tourism industry, the science of domestic and commercial cooking has moved from the hands of a few key players to the dominion of serious scientific venture. In the context of serious competition, every element in the food service industry is striving to adopt innovation and novelty using technology, to which molecular gastronomy has given a new face of distinctiveness. The cooking chemistry or molecular cuisine has helped the modern restaurants to a great extend to enhance cooking speed, service speed and very obviously the food quality along with the ability to keep the food fresh. A few techniques in molecular gastronomy Colloids Colloid is a chemical substance dispersed in molecular level evenly throughout one another. The particles of the dispersed substance are only suspended in the blend, unlike in a solution in which they are totally dissolved. This takes place because the elements in a colloid are larger than in a liquid. The colloidal system is used for making different types of foam, solid gel, emulsion and solid emulsion. Lecithin (Lecite) Lecithin is phospholipids extracted from soybean, partially water-soluble, and an emulsifier that helps fat and water stay together. For that reason, it is often added to chocolate, cheese, margarine, and salad dressing. It has health benefits, such as reducing cholesterol intensity. It is often added to flavoured liquids and then mixed to generate foams that are topped onto dishes to offer added appearance and texture. Maltodextrin powder Maltodextrin is a complex carbohydrate consisting of dextrose (glucose), maltose, maltotriose and higher polysaccharides. Maltodextrin is used in a wide variety of products, extending from bodybuilders, animal trainers (horses and greyhounds) to pharmaceutical manufacturers. Tapioca maltrodextrin is a popular product used to make powdered oil and fat products such as white truffle powder, and olive oil powder. Guar Gum Guar is a white free flowing powder, completely soluble in hot or cold water to form a tasteless, odourless, non-toxic solution. Guar gum powder has five to eight times the coagulating power of starch. It is mainly used as a binding agent, mixtures, thickener, and emulsifier in food products, such as cheese spreads, ice cream and other frozen desserts. Methylcellulose This forms a gel when heated, and melts into liquid when it cools. This is similar to gelatine. This quality can improve a food if it undergoes heating in its preparation and requires stability at cooking temperature (for example: preventing a sauce from thinning out). It is used as a binding agent for foods that need to keep their parts collectively. Products such as pasta, vegetable burgers, onion rings, and potato products are improved by its combining strength. This is due to its cohesive nature at low temperatures and the structural integrity at higher temperatures. Implementation and provision of MG in hospitality industry Molecular gastronomy principles, practices and provisions items have captured the intellect of both the chefs and their customers worldwide. Although initially intended to cater for the high purpose of the gourmet market, molecular gastronomy has been welcomed in assorted areas of the hospitality industry. Useful dining restaurants, cafà ©s and bistros, avail venues, specialist bars, prestigious and mainstream hotels; and all the more establishments that specialise in pastry and desserts are incorporating this style of cuisine to assorted degrees into their operations. As any other fields, molecular gastronomy also attracted much criticism from food writers and chefs around the world. Many established chefs did not accept molecular gastronomy as scientific gastronomic phenomena but labelled it as temporary style of cuisine (Hill, 2009). But in the context of Australian hospitality industry, hampering of successful insertion of molecular gastronomy was a lack of firsthand experience and training, which was recognized both by industry as well as the government. Another barrier facing the Australian industry is the inadequate supply and high prices for specialist food chemicals and equipments to incorporate various techniques of molecular gastronomy. The distribution of these chemicals and equipments are limited to a few suppliers and shops. Even though this is the case, Hill had identified a few restaurants in Victoria such as Fenix, Interlude and Vue de monde that offer limited molecular gastronomic techniques throughout their menus. Competition There is no doubt that hospitality industry is facing increasing competition than ever before. To withstand this pressure of competition, chefs should be able to remain innovative and attract new as well as existing customers by satisfying their demandingly increasing sophisticated expectations. In fact people are always looking for new and unique experiences. As a result of this, in recent years there has been a great emphasis on innovation, creativity and importance of innovation competency. In response, many chefs has accepted the concept of molecular gastronomy and working on it to achieve greater innovative competency and occupational competency. In his model of innovative culinary competency, Lei Hu (2010) has positioned molecular gastronomy among new technologies that helps innovation, where other factors being creativity, culture, aesthetics, product, service and management. This underpins the fact that molecular gastronomy is a scientific gastronomic phenomenon as mentioned earlier in this literature, than a temporary style of cooking. In the age of technology dominating every aspect of human life, molecular gastronomy is the new cooking technique dominating mans nourishment. Culinary tourism Culinary tourism is a relatively new industry came into being in 2003. It can be described as a subset of tourism, where tourists also consider the enjoyment of interesting and traditional or novel and innovative food and drink, while people travel. This subset of tourism promotes every gastronomic experience, with every tourist pursuit for unique and memorable eating and drinking experience. Tourists always tend to consider the local cuisine of destination or at least consider the available cuisines, as dining out is one of the top most tourist activities and nearly 100% of tourists eat out when they travel. This trend gives a huge opportunity to restaurants use molecular gastronomy to innovate and attract their patrons. Molecular gastronomy in many parts of the world has revolutionized restaurant dining experience and at the same time, led to new enjoyment and appreciation of food. A few examples include EI Bulli in Spain and the Fat Duck in the United Kingdom (Barham et. al. 2010) , two restaurants that since adopting a new scientific approach to cooking have become widely regarded as among the best restaurants in the world. This is noticeable evidence of people accepting or influenced by the new cooking science or molecular gastronomy. When we look into the tourists trends, the opportunity for success of molecular gastronomy is apparently huge. 27 million leisure travellers have participated in culinary related travel in the last 3 years in the US, while spending $12 Billion directly on culinary related activities (Schmantowsky, year unknown). The actual market segment includes more affluent people, who are highly motivated to experience unique and memorable dining experience. Studies prove that on an average, one third of total travel budget goes towards food related activities. The top six culinary tourist destinations include California (14%), Florida (10%), New York (7%), Texas (6%), North Carolina (4%) and Georgia (4%) (Schmantowsky, year unknown). Molecular gastronomy could be a catalyst to culinary tourism which has a great potential to increase tourism generated revenue and the strategic partnership of culinary schools, hospitality organisations, chefs and scientists is the key to success of it. SWOT analysis Strengths Demand: From the time restaurants started utilizing molecular gastronomy for developing new dishes, public has widely accepted the uniqueness and newness of the experience. From the chefs point of view, MG is a tool for innovation in the field to attract their customers and stay in business. Without thinking about any downsides of the technique, thus the public as well as the industry has widely accepted molecular gastronomy, while expecting and demanding more from it. This increasing demand has made or will make molecular gastronomy much popular worldwide. Hospitality industrys enthusiasm to change: from the very early time, hospitality industry is changing every now and then, because of changing trends and tastes of customers, increasing competition, technology adoptation, and varying needs of customers. In fact this is the ever dynamic industry when compared to any other industries. This enthusiasm or eagerness of hospitality industry in general provides a great opportunity to make use of molecular gastronomy in its operations and a catalyst for further changes. Thus the science of food has got great support from the hospitality industry. As technology is easily imitated now days, due to globalisation, molecular gastronomy techniques could be easily learned by enthusiast chefs around the world. Supply of raw materials: due to the increasing demand for molecular gastronomy, the demand for the ingredients also has raised especially various thickeners, stabilizers and emulsifiers. Since the success of restaurants like EI Bulli and the fat duck, in 2005-06, this demand has further elevated. The supply of these ingredients is only available in large quantities to the food industry, restricting the use of these chemicals by untrained or unprofessional people, which is on a safer side (lersch, 2007). In Australia Suppliers has positive prospects to add value and expand their product range and services to the industry. Ingredients for molecular gastronomy Weaknesses Molecular gastronomy is still gaining popularity, and the knowledge and experience of it are limited in most parts of the world within the industry and culinary training providers. It will take fair amount of time to spread throughout the industry and will take further long period for standardisation of new recipes. Also there is limited accessibility to special ingredients and equipments such as smoking machine, blow torch and gastro vac which are much needed for cooking techniques, which is a constraint for this field at the moment. Due to the scarcity and limited accessibility, most countries working on molecular gastronomy are relying on imported goods and equipments which resulted in increased costs for the same. As most countries are relying on French and Spanish resources, where molecular gastronomy originated from, there is a limitation in independent research and experiment in the field. This situation is also made worst by the language barriers between these countries. In a ddition, the existing workload in the hospitality industry provides less time to chefs for research and experiment in molecular gastronomy. Also there are limited technical books published in English language making things much more difficult. Opportunities Hill recognizes a few opportunities for molecular gastronomy in the Australian hospitality industry, which is more or less similar to many other countries. Countries with limited access to the resources could gain knowledge and skills from internationally recognised expert chefs and broaden their set of skills by integrating molecular gastronomy into the existing culinary programmes. Apart from this professional networks should be promoted with increasing research and experiments in the field. Acquiring knowledge should be transferred to culinary students and the industry professionals to develop a culture with strong gastronomic foundation. Threats When focusing on threats to molecular gastronomy, the major barriers hindering the growth are once again the increased costs of commodities and equipments due to increased demand and supply issues. Another threat is the changing trends and demand of todays customers which may lead to decreasing popularity and in turn lead to less interest among chefs and decreased need for training in this area. It is contradictory to say that customers has widely accepted and are demanding for molecular gastronomy but at the same time changing customer behaviour can hinder the growth of molecular gastronomy. This is because the popular trend created by new dishes evolved from molecular gastronomy has been widely accepted by the public due to its newness and unique nature. But once it is popular and widely available everywhere, it is not any more new or unique. Moreover, people who have tried the molecular style of cuisine may not go for it every time, but stick back to their favourite recipes, unless molecular gastronomy can create captivating recipes every now and then. However, these reasons are not at all a barrier for the growth of this particular discipline till it gains its popularity around the world. There is another aspect of molecular gastronomy which is not emphasised in any of the studies: that is about the health. Most of the chemicals which are directly harmless to human body often have side effects. So, the intense use of chemicals in the cooking process should be of great concern. For example, most of the allopathic medicines which cures disease, mostly have foreseen negative side effects causing ill health. Just like that extreme use of various chemicals in molecular gastronomy to alter the physical form of foods should be studied in detail before it is commercially popular. More over the technique to change the texture, consistency and taste of food in molecular level could be maltreated in future just like invention of atomic reactions meant for energy are later used to make atom bombs, which is now a threat for human existence. Conclusion Molecular gastronomy is a pathway to innovation in culinary industry for chefs and a wonderful new enjoyment for the customers. Even though this field of science has proved its scientific nature and uniqueness, still there is a second opinion among the chefs in the industry. This may be due to the fact that major role in this respect is limited to the French and Spanish with limited resources available to the rest of the world. Better translation of the resources and international co-operation among the professionals may help to educate everyone working in the industry, thus creating a holistic awareness about this discipline. But at the same time, while molecular gastronomy gives way to unbelievable innovations, there is a need for preserving the old traditional recipes which remain successful without any alterations for years. Molecular gastronomy is a milestone in the culinary industry, taking it into another level, while correcting the old recipes scientifically and inventing new trendy ones. Hospitality being an ever dynamic industry, and with the evolution of culinary tourism, it became essential for entrepreneurs to exhibit innovation and new trends in customer service, which is enhanced by molecular gastronomy to a great extend. Although this is the case, due to limited awareness and popularity among the public, certain areas of molecular gastronomy is still in distrust. Intense use of chemicals to change the physical and chemical properties of food is giving room for scepticism. This calls for a controlling body in each country and globally for close monitoring the work in molecular gastronomy, as there are organisations to control food hygiene and nutrition. This will provide certain norms for experiments and new recipes using the molecular gastronomic technology, before it reaches the public.

Changes and Behaviors of Shopping Essay -- Business, Stores

Shopping is an essential part of modern-day Western world life. It is how we obtain processed resources to live, not only in comfort, but also the basic requirements. Stores provide these resources for us to purchase. Today it is very common for us to go the local superstore and walk through the aisles and grab products and place them in the cart. At a time in history it wasn’t like that. Patrons were assisted by a clerk who stood behind a counter where products were kept. As shopping has changed and will continue to change, showing the contrast helps inform consumers and retailers the challenges. This essay will focus on the development of self-service, gendered shopping, through a literature review of Sharon Zukin, Paul du Gay and recent field experience. Self-service, open floor shopping started in the United States around 1909 by a man named, F.W. Woolworth, to increase volume sales and keep prices low (Zukin, 2005:71). Shopping was more of a social experience than today. Shoppers would know the employees and the owner, often engaging in conversation beyond basic small talk. Before, shoppers needed to go to several different stores to get produce, meat, dry goods, textiles, etc. Consolidated self-serving stores made all products transparent. Transparency is essential for comparison of items; it allows each customer to compare one product to another by attributes such as price or quality. Employees that survived downsizing were often put in the same location so that it still gave off the feeling that it was still a social experience. Having the interconnectedness with the store’s employees as well the customer proved to be needed to keep people in the store. It allowed them to feel comfortable to communicate ab... ... layouts. Friendly employees who occasionally engage consumers give the patron a sense of importance, being ignored can hurt the retail-consumer relationship. When clerks are too pushy, or assistive it can also be harmful as shown by example with my neighbor. Females have many more clothing options than men, and are less expensive. This I believe, reflects the focus of intimacy with the customer, and appeals to the more intuitive nature of females. Consumers hold the ultimate power to make or break retailers, it is imperative that they continue to serve the consumer. Small stores moved from a strong social center for gathering of people. It was more of transfer of social centers to more of an intimate shopping experience. In a way, it has allowed the romance of shopping, appearing that a secondary outcome was the love affair between person and product.

Hamlet and King Lear - Edgar and Lear :: comparison compare contrast essays

Hamlet and King Lear:   Madness  - Ophelia in Hamlet and Edgar in King Lear  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      In both Hamlet and King Lear, Shakespeare incorporates a theme of madness with two characters: one truly mad, and one only acting mad to serve a motive. The madness of Hamlet is frequently disputed. This paper argues that the contrapuntal character in each play, namely Ophelia in Hamlet and Edgar in King Lear, acts as a balancing argument to the other character's madness or sanity. King Lear's more decisive distinction between Lear's frailty of mind and Edgar's contrived madness works to better define the relationship between Ophelia's breakdown and Hamlet's "north-north-west" brand of insanity. Both plays offer a character on each side of sanity, but in Hamlet the distinction is not as clear as it is in King Lear. Using the more explicit relationship in King Lear, one finds a better understanding of the relationship in Hamlet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While Shakespeare does not directly pit Ophelia's insanity (or breakdown) against Hamlet's madness, there is instead a clear definitiveness in Ophelia's condition and a clear uncertainty in Hamlet's madness.   Obviously, Hamlet's character offers more evidence, while Ophelia's breakdown is quick, but more conclusive in its precision. Shakespeare offers clear evidence pointing to Hamlet's sanity beginning with the first scene of the play. Hamlet begins with guards whose main importance in the play is to give credibility to the ghost. If Hamlet were to see his father's ghost in private, the argument for his madness would greatly improve. Yet, not one, but three men together witness the ghost before even thinking to notify Hamlet. As Horatio says, being the only of the guards to play a significant role in the rest of the play, "Before my God, I might not this believe / Without the sensible and true avouch / Of mine own eyes. (I.i.56-8)" Horatio, who appears frequently throughout the play, acts as an unquestionably sane alibi to Hamlet again when framing the King with his reaction to the play.   That Hamlet speaks to the ghost alone detracts somewhat from its credibility, but all the men are witness to the ghost demanding they speak alone. Horatio offers an insightful warning: What if it tempts you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, And draw you into madness?

Impact of Terrorism on Financial Markets of Pakistan Essay

Since the emergence of 9/11 event in U.S.A., the world has witnessed significant increase in terrorist activities. Pakistan unfortunately has been the most vulnerable to the paradigm shift of terrorism. Its vulnerability is mainly subjected to its geographical location. Nonstop terrorist activities toppled over the country’s political, social and economic structure. Now the life of a normal citizen is at risk. State of infrastructure has become deplorable owing to the series of terrorist activities. Resultantly economic activity reduced manifold. Being a frontline state on â€Å"war on terror† the loss of Pakistan’s economy was a natural consequence. Pakistan’s economy was affected almost at all economic fronts which comprises of external, industrial, agricultural, business and services sector, etc. The continued rise in the terrorist activities also affected the confidence of foreign investors which caused the stoppage of FDI, besides withdrawal of the po rtfolio investment. The impact of terrorism was also felt in all the areas of the economy with varying degree and intensity. The most prominent areas included tourism, hotelling, manufacturing, cottage industry, transportation, trade, etc. These industries have reinforcing effect on each other. Factors such as heavy influx of Afghan immigrants, particularly Taliban; porous Pak-Afghan border; political instability; external conspiracies, demographic weaknesses and its geographical attractiveness have accentuated the process of Terrorism in Pakistan. All these factors combined with global â€Å"war on terror† have deteriorated Pakistan’s economic situation as a whole. Financial markets, which are the nucleus of any economic system, are also supposed to be affected due to terrorist activities. In the aftermath of the terror attacks of 11 September 2001 in New York and 11 March 2004 investors’ confidence deteriorated beyond national boundaries because of contagion effects (Johnston and Nedelescu, 2006). Under the current wave of terrorism in Pakistan, particularly the stock market, forex m arket and money markets are affected the most. These markets are highly important as most of the policy impacts are transmitted through these markets. Therefore, any disruption in the smooth working of these markets may affect the achievement of overall economic target set by the government. Especially the stock market, which is considered to be the barometer of economic health of a country, appeared to have been affected by the rise in extremism or terrorism in recent times. The negative impact of the market to hype in such activities is reflected by the selling of bonds of the target firm’s, but the magnitude and consistency of the negativity stirred in the market and of the spill over effects is questionable (Karolyi, 2006). Similarly, the forex market which is also obviously affected by the uncertainty prevailing in the economic environment bears adverse effects of the related events. As regard the banking sector of Pakistan, it is also found to be inflicted due to the aftermath of the terrorist activities. The size and distribution of the effect of these activities would depend on the myriad of factors such as nature of terrorist attack, target of the attack, the multiplier effect, policy response and the resilience of the financial market (Bruck and Wickstrom, 2004). Besides Lal Masjid operation, the hall mark of the terrorist activities over the sample period is loss of internationally known Pakistani Political personality i.e. Benazir Bhutto. After the assassination of the said Pakistan’s banking sector faced substantial losses due to damage to the infrastructure and robberies of the bank. Downfall of any of the financial market associated with a terrorist activity reduces the incentive to spend as opposed to save, a process that can spread through the economy and the rest of the world through normal business cycle and trade channels (Johnston and Nedelescu, 2006). Keeping in view the significance of financial market for Pakistan’s economy, the quantification of the impact of terrorists’ activities on financial market becomes an interesting area of research work. Especially, this requires empirical quantification of the impact of various kinds of terrorist activities that either occurred in key business centers or happened in the far flung areas. II. Literature Review We find very limited literature on the subject issue. Although a few studies are found to be discussing the overall consequences of terrorism on world economies, we do not find much evidence about the quantification of the impact of terrorist activities on financial markets using such high frequency data and with special reference to Pakistan. For the benefit of readers, the review of some of the relevant studies has been made which is given as under: After the eruption of terrorism in Spain in the 1970’s, Abadie and Gardeazabal (2001) discovered the fact that there was ten percent deterioration in the per capita GDP of the Basque region as opposed to a synthetic control region. They also found out that this difference widened due to the rise in the terrorist activities. Chen and Siems (2004) assessed the degree to which the U.S. Stock market reacted to fourteen extremist acts in the past ninety years by using the event study methodology. They also tried to assess the impact o f the September 11 attacks and the raid on Kuwait by Iraq on the stock markets of different nations of the world. They found certain proof of flexibility in the fact that the encounter with such extremists’ lead to a decrease in the market reaction. Moreover, they came to know that the impact of the September 11 incidence and the Iraqi raid were more unfavorable and harmful on the stock markets of nations around the world as opposed to the U.S. stock markets. The study by Johnston, et al. (2005) attempted to explore the impact of terrorism on financial markets. They found that how financial markets react to different shocks stemming from terrorist attacks. By making use of the data on financial markets such as the government securities market, the repo market, the insurance industry and the capital market of U.S, the study analyzed the reaction of the financial markets to the September 11 ‘2001 terrorist attacks in the New York, and March 11, 2004 attacks in Madrid. They concluded that given the accurate timely response of the authorities and rogue disaster management, the financial markets of U.S and Spain respectively were attributed with diversity and resilience to absorb the shocks of terrorist attacks. Both the central banks laden with the sense of responsibility of the â€Å"lender of the last resort† also came to rescue their respective financial systems in the aftermath of these acts of terrorism. In addition, the globalization trends also incepted the cross border cooperation among the central banks which mitigated the diffusion of contagion effects through the chain process of business cycle. Barth, and et al (2006) used panel data on terrorism and employed some of the control variables which proved the negative, depressing and unfavorable influence of terrorism on economic progress. In broad-spectrum, these extremists’ occurrences and events have a substantial destructive impact on the economy of a country and thus rende r a depreciation and deterioration of the economy. Their outcome also sheds some light on the fact that the aim of such attacks also makes a difference. Extremists’ attacks directed at places and properties other than that of public have an unconstructive link commonly with development and capital structure and generation. Gulley and Jahangir (2006) used the statistical data available for the stock, bond and foreign exchange rate and stock market from 1968 to July 2005, for a group of countries i.e Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and the US. Data on terrorist attacks has been collected from The National Memorial Institute for Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) for exactly the same time period characterizing the date, time, location, type and target of the attack. Since the data is high frequency data, they have employed â€Å"Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscadastisity (GARCH) Model† to study the impact of terror attacks on the return (level) and volatility of the financial markets of the sample area, while their theoretical model is based on asset pricing model. Their results are well collaborated with the perceived expectations and the theory. They found negative returns with increasing terrorist activities for the stock market, while for the bond market lower yields were observed. Terrorist attacks had not been found associated with additional volatility in stock market in the given set of countries under observation. Liquidity of the foreign exchange market is significantly higher than other markets. Abadie and Gardeazabal (2007) attempt to measure the impact of terrorism on the foreign direct investment in an open economy. They made use of the data set on net stock of FDI obtained from the UNCTAD (United Nation Conference on Trade and Development) for 98 countries and GTI (Global Terrorism Index) for measuring data on terror activities which have the 100 European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 18, Number 1 (2010) advantage over other measures by being popular among the international investors’ who use it to evaluate specific country’s risk. During their regression analysis, keeping the other types of risks constant, it was concluded that small changes in terror activities have the potential to bring big change in the allocation of the productive resources across the countries, keeping the international economy sufficiently open. They have statistically proved that wit the increasing standard deviation of the terror attacks, the net FDI shrinks by 5 percent of GDP. Melnick and Eldor (2007) used discounted-cash-flow valuation model in order to calculate the media exposure created due to such terrorist acts and also for the assessment of costs in term of the foregone alternatives of the liberated and unbound media exposure provoked by such extremists’ acts and their impact on the single stock market fun ctioning in Israel, â€Å"Tel Aviv Stock Exchange†, to measure the influence on the economy. They reached to the conclusion that there a statistic importance and significance of the opportunity cost variable and that it provides a role as an adequate indicator including the whole content required to portray the impact of militant acts on the stock market. The outcome clearly shows the converse relationship between the degree of media exposure and the deterioration in the value of stocks. However, it was also found that not any of the elements arising out of terrorism are statistically substantial and significant after the insertion of the opportunity cost variable in the equation. Berrebi and Klor (2008) took the sample of 125 Israeli defense and security companies that are traded in American markets and a number of American companies as controls for Israeli companies. The data on terror attacks, collected from Israeli foreign ministry, was based on daily terror attacks and noncombatant fatalities arising from them. They made use of the event study methods in order to measure and assess the positive impact of terrorism on the return of the stocks of the sample companies relative to those of control group. It was empirically found that Israeli defense related companies experienced comparatively lowered (negative) abnormal returns than those of American controls during the first part of the period under analysis i.e. before Palestinian uprising (January 1st, 1998 – September 28th, 2000). They had also been successful in proving that average cumulative difference in abnormal returns (CDRAR) of the defense related companies exhibit downward slope before the Palestinian uprising where as the trends reverses abruptly during the second part of period under analysis (second Palestinian uprising). During the second uprising, the defense realted companies gained around 70 percentage points while the non defense companies lost over 60 percentage points. Out of the myriad of research problems pertaining to this area of interest, quantification of the terrorist activities and measuring its impact on the fluctuation of various economic variables is imperative owing to the possibility of plausible relationships between two variables which may result in biased empirical results (Berrebi and Klor, 2008). In this paper, this problem has been tried to sought out by using Durban Watson statistics in order to check the variables for autocorrelation issue. This study is different in several aspects from the existing studies which were conducted on the subject matter. Some of the distinguishing features are given as under: †¢ It uses daily data on all the financial markets and the terrorist activities. Earlier studies present on this topic have examined the financial markets on a much lower frequency data. †¢ This study is first of its kind with reference to Pakistan. No research has been done in Pakistan before on the same lines. †¢ Different aspects of terrorism have been incorporated in this study in terms of the kind of terrorist activity, its intensity, the location of incidence and the target. †¢ The study examines the effect of each kind of terrorist activity on stock, forex and money markets separately. III. Research Methodology Data Description The study uses time series data for this piece of research work. It uses high frequency data, which is a daily data, over a period of two and a half years (i.e. from 31st December 2005 to 30th June 2008). The 101 European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 18, Number 1 (2010) data has been collected from different resources. Secondary data has been used for three financial markets separately, i.e. banking market which represents the money market while stock market (KARACHI STOCK EXCHANGE) and the FOREX market represent the capital market. The data on the KSE Index has been taken from the KSE website. The data on the foreign exchange (i.e. rupee dollar parity) has been acquired from the Monetary Policy Department of the State Bank of Pakistan. The data on KIBOR (Karachi Inter Bank Offer Rate) has also been obtained from Domestic Markets & Monetary Management Department (DMMD), State Bank of Pakistan. The most cumbersome process of the primary data collection has been the collection of terrorists’ activities on daily basis. Daily information on these activities has been collected from various news papers including â€Å"The Daily Dawn†. Since various kinds of terrorists’ activities were found in the news papers, an attempt was made to choose the most relevant activities which has some impact on the working of financial market. While finding out the impact of terrorists’ activities on the financial markets of Pakistan we categorize the terrorists’ activities into four distinct dummy variables. The terrorists’ activities have been grouped together in four different categories naming D1, D2, D3 & D4. Each activity has been assigned a particular group according to its intensity. A brief discussion of dummy variables used in the study is given as under; †¢ D1 is equal to 1 for the kind of terrorists activities which have targeted the key p ersonnel (political or otherwise) of the country and 0 for not happening of such event. †¢ D2 is equal to 1 for the happenings of the terrorists’ activities in the cities that are financially active or are the economic centers of the country and 0 for not happening of such events. †¢ D3 is equal to 1 for occurrence of major activities but in the non financial cities, †¢ Whereas D4 equals 1 for minor terrorists’ events taking place in small cities and 0 for not happening of such events. †¢ DST is equal to 1 in case of any structural change that has taken place during the period under study, otherwise it is equal to 0. Though most of the activities placed in D4 are not minor in terms of cost of human lives and infrastructure of the cities, but may be because of the peaking magnitude of the terrorism in the country for the past two and a half years or so, we as a nation, has become so much resilient to such attacks that loss of lives of normal citizens or human beings or blowing up of country’s resources does not mean much loss to u s, neither in moral sense nor in financial terms. Analytical Techniques For the estimation of results, E-views, which is time series econometric software, has been extensively used. For the purpose of analysis, the model used is â€Å"MULTIPLE REGRESSION MODEL†. This model not only tells us the extent of the impact of terrorists’ activities on the individual financial markets but it also tells us the direction of the relationship between the regressors and the regressands. In this study the regressand are KSEI, FOREX rate and KIBOR while the four categories of terrorist activities are regressors. The study asseses the impact of terrorist activities on these three market. The functional form of the model would be as follows; (1) FM = f (Di) Where; FM indicates any type of the above mentioned financial market. Di indicates dummy variable capturing the impact of any type of the terrorist activity which affects the financial markets in Pakistan. To assess the impact, the functional form of the equation no. 1 is converted i nto mathematical equation, which is as follows; FM = ÃŽ ± + ÃŽ ²Di (2) Where; FM = any financial market operating in Pakistan e.g. ÃŽ ± = intercept ÃŽ ² = parameter to be estimated or coefficient. Di = dummy variables ranging from D1 to D4. WhileD1, D2, D3 and D4 are already explained. For KIBOR analysis, the study uses an additional dummy variable namely DST. It denotes any structural changes occurring in the economy which has imminent impact on the inter bank market. Since the dependent variable (financial markets) is also affected by many other variables which are called stochastic or error terms, so we need to convert the equation no. (2) into an econometric equation, which is represented as follows; FM = ÃŽ ± + ÃŽ ²Di + ei (3) Where ei is an error term. Since the dynamics of each kind of financial markets are a bit different. We need to estimate the results separately using a different equation for estimation purpose. These are given below; i. Stock Market Since KSE is the most active or most efficient of all the financial markets in Pakistan, we analyze the impact of four dummy variables on KSE 100 index first. In order to particularly analyze the growth of KSE Index we convert the daily values of KSE 100 Index into their log values. As the stock market show significant volatility over the last few years, we take natural log of the equation no. (2) for smoothening of the KSE Index. KSEI = ÃŽ ± + ÃŽ ²Di + ei (4) Taking natural log on the left hand side we get; Ln(KSEI) = ÃŽ ± + ÃŽ ²Di + ei (5) This is the final equation which can now be used for estimation of the impact analysis of terrorist activities on KSE. The equation reads as the natural log of Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index is a function of the Di viz D1, D2, D3 and D4 representing various forms and intensity levels of terrorist activities. After regressing all the dummy variables (D1 to D4) separately on the LnKSEI, we see adverse effect of D1, D2 and D4 on the LnKSEI. It is important to note that the individual effect of D1 and D2 seemed suppressed. So in order to enhance the collective effect of D1 and D2 we combine both the variables and name it as D1†². So that the terrorists’ activities targeting key personnel and major financial areas are singularly termed as â€Å"major events† (grouped in D1†²) while D3 and D4 remain the same. By applying OLS regression technique, we estimate the following equation;(6) Ln(KSEI) = a + ÃŽ ²D1†² + ÃŽ ³D4 + ei Where; Ln(KSEI) = natural log Karachi Stock Exchange Index. D1†² = terrorists’ activities targeting key personnel and major financial cities. D4 = minor activities in small cities. ÃŽ ±, ÃŽ ², ÃŽ ³ = parameters to be estimated. ei = stochastic/ error/residual term. ii. FOREX Market Foreign exchange market of a nation is the arena where country’s currency is traded for other currencies. The daily buying and selling of a currency determines the daily average rate of a currency. The trading takes place in domestic and international market simultaneously and hence the equilibrium point of the demand and supply of a currency determines the daily average FOREX rate. The rate can be determined in terms of any foreign currency. The exchange of currency typically takes place via brokers, but overall many institutions like commercial banks, investment banks, brokerage houses, clearance houses, foreign exchange markets on the whole and individuals are involved in the process. FOREX market is the biggest financial market of the world but with reference to Pakistan it stands second. Since foreign exchange rate can be expressed i n two ways, i.e;  i. Direct quotation ii. Indirect quotation. In this study we have used the direct quotation of the Pak rupee (PKR). We take the exchange rate of PKR in terms of U.S Dollar and express the exchange rate as I/PKR (direct quotation). Taking its natural log reduces the volatility of the exchange rate. In our analysis we are required to determine the impact of terrorists’ activities on the Exchange Rate stability or to critically see how much of the underlined activities depreciate the domestic currency in terms of the foreign currency (U.S. Dollar). We have derived the following equation: Ln (ER) = ÃŽ ± + ÃŽ ²Di + ei (7) Where; ER = exchange rate. While for analysis purpose we use the following equation. (8) Ln (ER) = ÃŽ ± + ÃŽ ²1(D1) + ÃŽ ²2(D2) + ÃŽ ³(D4) + ei where; Ln (ER) = natural log of exchange rate D1 = terrorists’ activities targeting the key personalities D2 = terrorists’ activities taking place in the major financial cities D4 = minor terror events in small cities. ÃŽ ±, ÃŽ ², ÃŽ ³ = parameters to be estimated ei = residual/ error term. It is clear from equation (8) that ER is influenced by the terrorist activities grouped in D1, and D2. For the empirical findings, we regress the g iven econometric equation by applying OLS technique. iii. KIBOR Karachi Inter Bank Offer Rate (KIBOR) is the average of daily offer rates of commercial banks. It is the average daily rate on which a bank offers short term loans to other commercial banks. In other words, KIBOR is a yardstick to measure the capability of banking industry of a country to accommodate short term loans and funds. The underlined activities may also affect KIBOR rates. Interbank rate is the relative indicator of performance and efficiency of banking industry since it indicates the borrowing ability of the commercial banks. Econometric equation for KIBOR is given as; KIBOR = ÃŽ ± + ÃŽ ²Di + ei (9) To find out the empirical results of impact of terrorism on banking industry (KIBOR) weestimate the following econometric equation by OLS technique. KIBOR = ÃŽ ± + ÃŽ ²D1 + ÃŽ ³DST + ei (10) Where; KIBOR = Karachi Inter Bank Offer Rate D1 = major terrorists’ activities targeting key personalities. DST = dummy variable for structural changes. ÃŽ ±, ÃŽ ², ÃŽ ³ = parameters to be estimated ei = stochastic/error/residual term. IV. Empirical Findings As already explained, we separately estimate the impact of terrorists’ activities on three types of financial markets mainly due to having different dynamics and sensitivity of events. The final impact analysis is given as under; i. KSEI Using equation no. (6) we obtain the impact of underlining activities on KSE market. 104 European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 18, Number 1 (2010) It is apparent from the results that the value of R2 is 0.98 or 98% which means that our model is best fitted. It implies that 98% of variations in the dependant variable (LnKSEI) are explained by the independent variable. Durbin Watson Statistics is equal to 1.96, which is closer to 2, shows that the regression model is not ploughed with the problem of autocorrelation. Standard error of the model is also reasonably small (0.016336) which is responsible for increasing the calculated value of t-statistics, thus we reject null hypothesis (i.e. Ho: ÃŽ ² & ÃŽ ³ = 0). F-statistics is 14379.05, which is comparatively very high indicating the overall significance/fitness of the model. C or ÃŽ ± is actually the intercept which is the weighted average of all the ignored variables that might affect the KSE index. Its value is 9.441305 which are significant at 1 % level of significance (highly significant). This indicates that KSEI is affected by variety of events not included in this analysis due to time constraint factor. Most probably the factors like capital taxes on earnings of stocks, capital inflows, and future strategies of companies registered at stock market, external shocks might be included in the test. Similarly, the terrorist activities also adversely affect KSE. Particularly, the value of D1 dummy variable (ÃŽ ² = -0.005021 at 2% level of significance) indicates that 1 percent increase in relevant terrorists’ activities might negatively affect KSE 100 Index by 0.5 percent. It means that the terrorists’ activities occurring in major financial hubs and those targeting key personalities of the country negatively and significantly impacts the performance of the KSE. To put it the other way round, KSE 100 Index might decline when any such terrorist activity occurs in the region. In the same way, the dummy variable D4 has also affected the KSE 100 Index negatively . It indicates that minor terrorist attacks occurring in small cities do not impact the KSE 100 Index significantly, although the impact in negative. Here, the estimated negative value of ÃŽ ³ (-0.000137) means to support the argument that small terrorist activities have negative impact on KSE. More appropriately, the said terrorist activities grouped in D4 combined with other residual factors also affect the functioning of the KSEI negatively. The impact of such activities on KSE performance may become significant because of the important paradigm shift in policy measures. Policies of the government or other concerned institutions are greatly affected by the magnitude of terrorism in a region. Greater the magnitude of the terrorist activities, greater would be the uncertainty in economic environment, and consequently greater would be the rate of change of policy measures. Since Karachi provides the centre of financial activities to the country and Karachi Stock Exchange is the biggest stock market of the country, so the vulnerability of the city to the terrorism is most likely to create volatility of the liquidity in the economy. Greater the occurrence of terrorist activities in the city, greater would be the likelihood of adverse effect on the financial markets, particularly KSE. Consequently the result would be the higher outflow of capital, lower investments, lesser exports and depletion of foreign reserves. ii. FOREX Rate Using the equation no.(8) the results of the impact of terrorist activities on FOREX market has been estimated by OLS technique. According to the results obtained, the value of the R2 is 0.99 or 99%, which implies that 99% of the variations in dependant variable (ER) are explained by the variations in explanatory variables. The value of R2 is pretty high indicating that the model is a best fit. Durbin Watson statistics is equal to 2 showing that there is no issue of autocorrelation in the regression model. The F- statistics value is also very high and significant showing the overall significance of the model. Standard error of the regression is very low, making t- statistics pretty high. The intercept term, C or ÃŽ ± is -4.078457 which is quite significant indicating that the ignored variables caused depreciation of Pak rupee against U.S. Dollar. As regards the impact of dummy variable D1, it is negative but insignificant. So we are able to interpret that the terrorist activities named as D1 do adversely affect the exchange rate of PKR but the impact is not at all significant. Similarly, the coefficient of D2 is also very small which indicates that the response of the FOREX market to underlying activities is almost negligible. It determines that D2 activities have a negative and insignificant impact on the determination of FOREX rate. The impact of D4 activities on FOREX is interpreted in the same way as that of D1 and D2. European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 18, Number 1 (2010) From all of the above coefficient values we can infer a negative relationship between the terrorism and the FOREX rate. The negative sign indicates that any such happening is responsible for the depreciation of the domestic currency in terms of the foreign currency (U.S. Dollar in the present case). Though this impact is not significantly visible with reference to Pakistan but there might be several possible explanations for this suppressed relationship. From Pakistan’s standpoint the impact might be insignificant because of high resilience of the financial markets here. From the daily data of the terrorist activities it is evident that these events have been taking place at a very high frequency over the sample period. The magnitude of these activities ranges from mild offensive happenings to very high terror attempts that scare off the whole humanity. In this scenario, it is likely to expect the convergence of financial markets. The impact has to be adverse because such happenings produces uncertainty in the economic environment, increases the risks and liquidity shortage, reduces exports, depreciates currency, lowers the domestic and foreign investments and thus definitely there is a flight of capital from economy. But in case of Pakistan, high frequency of such events might be responsible for the cold blooded attitude of nation as a whole and these events may seem a routine happening to the people involved in currency trading or in any other financial market. It is because of this reason that the variation in depreciation of PKR is very less as compared to the perceived expectations. So we can safely say, terrorism does not signify its impact on foreign exchange market of Pakistan, unless the ev ent is highly adverse or of global attention like that of assassination of the former prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto. iii. KIBOR By using OLS technique on equation no.(10) we get the following results on impact of terrorist activities on the money market or interbank market (KIBOR). The results showed us that the value of R2 is 0.98 or 98% which means that it is a best fitted model. 98% of the variations in the dependant variable, KIBOR, are determined by the variations in the explanatory (independent) variable. The estimated value of Durbin Watson Statistics is 1.95 which is used to indicate that the results are not ploughed with the menace of autocorrelation problem. This reflects the accuracy of results, as it can be used in the policy formulation process concerning the KIBOR. Standard Errors are very small which means higher values of t-statistics. Values of F-statistics are again very high i.e. 15109.34 showing the overall significance of the model. The value of intercept, C or ÃŽ ± is 8.474 is high, which is significant at 1% level of significance. It is indicative of the fact that other factors are more likely to be responsible for the increase in the bank rate. The value of the coefficient of D1 i.e ÃŽ ²1 is 0.001382. The terrorist activities grouped in D1 do affect the KIBOR positively but insignificantly. Positive sign indicates that greater the occurrence of the activities, higher will be the interbank rate. The coefficient of D2 is also positive (highly significant at 1 % level of significance). It indicates that factors other than terrorist activities play a key role in bringing about changes in the KIBOR rate. The impact of terrorist activities on KIBOR is widespread as compared to that of stock market (KSE). It is because of the fact that we find a bank branch network throughout the country, while KSE is confined to one city only. So the likelihood of the affect of terrorism increases on banking industry. The increased impact can be seen in the shape of the KIBOR rate. V. Conclusions and Recommendations This study was primarily aimed at estimating the impact of various kinds of terrorist activities on the three financial markets viz Karachi stock market, Foreign exchange market and the money market. The findings of the OLS regression model enable us to conclude; †¢ The economy of Pakistan has been adversely affected by the ongoing terrorist activities. †¢ The terrorists’ activities in Pakistan have adversely and significantly affected the performance of KSE. Further, the KSE has been relatively more affected by the terrorist events compared to  the other markets. This might be due to it’s vary nature as KSEI is relatively more sensitive to events rather than economic fundamentals. The terrorist activities have insignificant but adverse effect on FOREX market. One reason behind the insignificant impact of terrorist activities on FOREX rates might be the inter bank data used in the analysis. As the SBP continue to interfere in the FOREX market, therefore, any volatility arising due to such events might be subdued due to SBP proactive intervention. The impact on KIBOR rate although negative but estimated to be insignificant is a very positive development as KIBOR rate is considered as an indicator of short term loans extended by banks. In case of significant adverse impact of terrorist activities on KIBOR, it may affect investment plans of the country, which might have been negative implication for Pakistan’s economy. Most of the findings of this study are consistence with the theoretical expectations. The result estimates for the KSE 100 Index and KIBOR rate are per expectations. The econometric results for the second regression are although correctly directed but not consistent with the theory to extent as expected. The rising magnitude of terrorism in a country definitely adversely affects the economy in general and financial markets in particular. Last but not the least, targets of the terrorist activities play an important role in determining the impact on financial markets. There might be many shortcomings in the study which mainly accounts to the time constraints. light of the present study some policy recommendations could be made, following are some of †¢ In the light of the study, its empirica l findings and conclusions the government and the state ought to work on the institutional development on account of terrorism. Anti terrorism policy framework of international concern shall be formulated, enhanced and made available to the general public under this institution. Masses be given advanced warnings before occurring of any such event and rehabilitation be an important immediate step after the event has happened. Besides the well being of the general masses, effective contingency planning to mitigate the financial risk faced by the financial firms and the over all economy has to form a major constituent of the anti terrorism policy making institution. Since the adverse impact of terrorism on the financial markets has been econometrically proved in this study, economic policy should form an eminent part of the anti terrorism policy making. Effective measures shall be devised to counter the wave of disruption created in any of the above mentioned financial markets. With the continuous attacks of terror on the economy, as in Pakistan, the major domestic and international investor’s draw their money out of the financial markets. There is a flight of capital out of the economy which is a major set back to the domestic currency. To mitigate the risk of depreciation of the currency, policies regarding increasing the money supply and lowering the interest rates in order to perk up investor’s confidence and to keep the foreign reserves build up shall be enacted. Policy has to be formed to strengthen the financial structure of the economy and increase its resilience to absorb the shocks to the maximum limit. Opportunities to the domestic manufacturers’ shall be accentuated to increase exports and thus demand of domestic currency. This is an important measure to avoid the depreciation of currency and also it will make the trade deficit unlikely to occur. This is an important policy implication for the money market. Investment in research and development and innovative security measures is also need of the day. European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 18, Number 1 (2010) Lastly, policies should be made and extended on the global level to increase the cooperation and coordination among the major stake holders in the global financial markets. Policies regarding benign relationships among the central banks of international importance shall also be encouraged so as to extend financial help during the crucial financial crunch after any enormous act of terrorism. Based on the results findings, the study mainly recommends that the concerned policy makers must take into account the impact of terrorist activities while formulating policies for the three kinds of financial markets. However, the impact of terrorist activities varies on each market in terms of its intensity, place of occurrence etc. †¢ References [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Abadie, A. and Gardeazabal, J. (2001). 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