Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - Essay Example Maslow’s hierarchy of needs entails five levels. The first level entails the satisfaction of biological and psychological needs like water, air, food, shelter, warmth, and sleep. The second level is the safety needs and these needs include order and law, stability and freedom from fear (McLeod, 2014). The third level entails the sense of love and belonging needs like intimate relationships, friendship, and affection from family, peers, and workmates. The fourth level entails esteem needs that include prestige, dominance, self-respect, and respect from others. The final level of needs is self-actualization needs that include realizing one’s personal potential and personal growth. Later, the five stage model was expanded to include cognitive needs like knowledge and meaning, aesthetic needs like appreciation for beauty and finally transcendence needs which involves helping others to achieve their self-actualization. In each level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, their character of being ‘wanting beings’ motivates people. When one need is satisfied, it stops becoming a motivator and another need emerges (NetMBA Business Knowledge Center, 2010). If the things that satisfy the lower needs are gone, people do not care about achieving the higher needs. Indeed, the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs asserts that we must follow a defined order to satisfy our needs. To move a person to a higher level of the hierarchy within the work group, employers and organizations must help people to identify, pursue and reach their own personal potential (McLeod, 2014). Successful organizations are those that understand and encourage their employees towards self-actualization to help them achieve their personal growth. For instance, an employee in sales and marketing department can only achieve the sales targets if a conducive working environment is provided which includes friendship from the

Assignment about ethics 4 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

About ethics 4 - Assignment Example What are the defining / distinguishing features of moral courage? Elaborate to clarify what you mean by each. By definition there are five essential parts of moral courage, which include: existence and identification of a moral situation, moral choice, behavior, individuality, and fear. By counting existence and identification of a moral situation, it is meant that without a situation to prove the presence of moral courage in a person, the virtue of moral courage cannot be vindicated. By identifying the moral situation, the onlooker gets charged to react due to one’s inherent ethical values. The inherent values and principles compel the observer to react to the emerged situation. This leads to the second distinct feature of moral courage – moral choice (Miller, 2005). A person facing a moral situation must take a decision related to the moral alternative. By invoking the moral values and principles, the person must take not a legal but morally right decision (Miller, 20 05). The third feature of moral courage is behavior because it draws a line between moral courage and moral reasoning. Just thinking what should be done to come over the moral issue and actually doing that right action are two different things. It is behavior that leads to doing the right action (Miller, 2005). ... Fear is the last quality of a morally courageous person. He or she must acknowledge to oneself that fear of the negative outcome must be overpowered to take a morally courageous action. This fear factor is not to be managed outwardly, but it is an inner realization to face the situation, decide, and behave as per the decision taken. Facing and overpowering fear means one is ready to pay the price of one’s fearless behavior (Miller, 2005). Why is moral courage important? i.e., why are scholars interested in studying moral courage? Moral courage is important to keep intact the moral fiber of our life and society. Moral courage denotes strong will power that provides support to other human virtues. Human beings can gain heightened degree of perfection or sanctity of the heart through moral courage. A morally virtuous individual dedicating life for accomplishing good deeds cannot let others use wrong means. That’s why it is all the more important to teach and develop moral virtues among children through story-telling (Miller, 2005). Question 2: Answer to part (a) Think about a time that you either (a) displayed moral courage or (b) opted not to act in a morally courageous way. Describe the situation. Indicate what occurred, what you decided to you, what factors might have contributed to your decision and the outcome. Is there anything you might do differently if you faced that situation again? Or, is there anything you learned from class that might better prepare you / help you to manage better if you faced that situation again. It happened five years back. I was traveling in a train to reach back to my hostel after spending vacations at home with my family. The compartment I was traveling was fully

Positive Accounting Theory

Positive Accounting Theory INTRODUCTION Purpose The purpose of this report is to analyse the effect of adopting AASB 2 Share-based Payments. Besides, this report will also provide discussions about the reaction of some parties related to this adoption. Background In July 2004, there is a significant change in the accounting requirements for share-based payments. The previous standard that governs share-based payment was AASB 1046 Director and Executive Disclosures by Disclosing Entities, which then supersede by AASB 2 Share-based Payments. Under AASB 1046, share-based payments only required to be disclosed. However, AASB 2 requires an entity to reflect on its profit or loss and balance sheet the effects of share-based payment transactions at fair value (Accounting Handbook 2008). Scope This analysis is done by applying Positive Accounting Theory (PAT). The report covers three main areas, impact of adoption on companies, on managers, and motivation of regulators in developing standards Limitations Since AASB 2 is still new, research papers used in this reports may not Positive Accounting Theory (PAT) that popularized by Watts and Zimmerman is one of positive theory accounting. PAT is concerned with explaining accounting practices. It is designed to explain and predict which firms will not use a particular method. It does not say something as to which method a firm should use. This is what differentiates positive and normative theories. Normative theories prescribe how a particular practice should be undertaken and this prescription might be a significant departure from existing practice. PAT focuses on the relationship between the various individuals involved in providing resources to an organisation and how accounting is used to assist in functioning of these relationships. PAT is based on the central economics-based assumption that all individuals actions are driven by self-interest and that individuals will always act in an opportunistic manner to the extent that the actions will increase their wealth. From an efficiency perspective, why could the introduction of new rules on share option accounting be costly for an organization? Share-based payments have been widely used by many organizations as an incentive tool attracting and retaining employees, and compensate senior executives. Because there was a significant change in the accounting requirements on share-based payments, this will then affect quite numbers of organizations. The effect on organization can be explained by an efficiency perspective. Efficiency perspective, which also known as ex-ante perspective, is one of perspective under the PAT umbrella. It considers up-front mechanisms in order to minimize future agency and contracting costs (TB p. 274). Theorists of efficiency perspective argued that companies adopt particular accounting methods which best reflect their underlying economic performance. By choosing the best methods, it is being argued that investors and other parties will need not to gather as much additional information from other sources. This will consequently lead to cost saving and reducing the risks of investors, which will then increase the value of the company (TB p. 274). Another effect on the implementation of AASB 2 is that it will reduce the profit of the company, thus the performance of the company will seems to be not so attractive to the potential investors. Unattractive performance of the company may cause the investors to assume that the company has higher risks of default. Thus investors become reluctant to invest in the company or, the investors will require higher return. In other words, the company will be facing a hard time to gain investors confidence or the company will be facing a high cost of capital (TB p. 275). Since PAT theorists believe that companies will choose the methods best reflect the companies performance, this means that there will be no need for regulations to be in place anti regulation perspective. PAT theorists argued that regulation of financial accounting imposes unwarranted costs on reporting entities (TB p. 275). In the case of share-based payments, by superseding AASB 1046 with AASB 2, this provides restrictions to the company as to limited methods available to choose from. This will create inefficiencies the companies may not able to choose the method that best reflect their performance. Besides, by expensing share-based payments, this would harm start-up companies and decrease the entrepreneurial activity of growing companies (Sacho Wingard 2004). The reason behind this is that both new and growing companies usually do not always have enough cash to be used as incentive tool attract and retain skillful employees. Thus, in order to attract and retain talented employees, such companies use share options instead of giving cash incentives. Under the previous standard, whereby share options do not need to be recorded as an expense in the profit and loss statement, this will result in higher profitability which may be assumed as a good performance by investors. Besides, this will result in higher returns from investment (ROI). Thus, this makes the financial position statement of those companies look better (stronger) which then allow them to access greater capital than they would had if they have to expensed share option. Debt covenants, which also known as banking or financial covenants, are agreements between a company and its lenders that the company should operate within certain limits (Pietersz 2009). The limits set by the lenders are usually expressed in accounting numbers (i.e. level of gearing ratios). Besides set the limits, lenders will also impose obligations if the company breaches the agreement. Thus, if the company has to expense-off the share-based payments transactions, this will affect the bottom line of its financial statement which then will affect some accounting ratios. This will create difficulties for the company to operate within the limit written in the debt covenant. Company will need to re-examine the debt covenants and need to consider how to communicate this adverse impact on reported profits and key performance ratios to the market. In a worse case, company may wants to renegotiate the terms and conditions of the agreements (Chalmers Godfrey 2005). Both re-examine and re negotiate are not easy tasks, it takes a lot of efforts, considerable amount of time, and it is costly. Since AASB 2 requires companies to record share-based payments transactions as an expense, which then leads to lower profit, this will discourage companies to use share options as a compensation tool. This may cause managers to lose their motivation to improve the performance of the company, because share option is a method that widely used and most benefiting to the managers. Sacho and Wingard (2004) argued that expensing share-based payments would hurt companies like Apple, Intel and Microsoft (information technology companies) due to earnings pressures caused by share-based payments. Expensing share options will also distort earning per share (EPS). Distortion may occur due to inclusion of expense for employee stock options in the profit and loss statement will result in an inaccurate double charge in the financial statement (BIO 2004). When the employees exercise their options, it will be recorded as an expense and increase in the number of share issued. Thus, EPS will be diluted. In compliance to AASB 2, companies have to determine the fair value of the stock options. However, it is complicated to determine the fair value of stock options at grant date, due to difficulties in predicting future movement of share prices. Thus, mathematical models, such as lattice model are often used to predict the future movement in the share price and therefore to derive the value of the stock options. However, to apply this model, expertise is required. Thus, companies have to hire external experts. Besides, additional internal compliance costs, costs of external audit will also increases (BIO 2004). Why could the introduction of new rules on share option accounting be costly for manager A new set of regulation regime in the share option accounting will lead to a different treatment of accounting method to adopt in the company. The complex changes in the new treatments will increase administration and reporting requirements. According to Miles, manager will need to employ accounting industry specialist to assist them in order to comply with the latest regulatory changes. The additional administration requirement will burden the managers with extra costs. This is because managers will have to put in a lot of effort, allocate more time and money in order to familiarize and adopt the new set of the regulation which is generally called as bonding cost (Deegan). These extra allocations will go into training the existing staffs to get used to the new regulations. In addition to that, in certain cases, managers will have to employ new staff; specialists will cost even more money, to deal with the new accounting method which will ultimately result in an increase in the opera tional cost of the company. Besides time consuming and increase in operational cost, the new set of share option accounting rules will limit the managers option in applying different accounting methods. The new set of rule forces managers to be more transparent in preparing the financial report. Managers will lose the opportunity to construct a financial report that best indicate the companys performance. This is because, AASB 2 requires manager to recognize expenses that are related to services or goods received or acquired in the share based payment transaction. As a result, by expensing the items mentioned will significantly reduce the profit in the income statement. In the case of companies relying on profit based performance, managers are directly affected by the diminished profit. Low profit indicates low bonuses for the managers. On the other hand, for companies relying on share-price based performance, manager has to bear indirect impact of the huge deduction in the profit. This is because investors are the ones who are influential in regards to the movement of share prices. Investors are acting based on the information provided in the financial statement. Unexpected decline in the profit will lead to a negative sentiment; as a consequence, the investors are not convinced in either purchasing or retaining the companys share (Deegan pg. 262). Instead of increase in the share price, it will drop the share price. Ultimately the value of share options will drop in line with the drop in share prices. What would motivate the regulators to develop the new rules? Big organizations represent large visible blocks of wealth and the government possesses the ultimate authority; through legislation and through court decisions. Politicians, bureaucrats, and special interest groups are interested in expanding their welfare, supporting rules that would work to their own benefit (Jensen, 1976). Generally, the regulators are controlled; if not, influenced by the government in power. Regulators might be motivated in developing new rules; in the scope of self-interest, that would benefit the government. For example, the majority of the public demands the government to solve discrimination and poverty or to be stricter with issues in regards to the environment. In order for the government to stay as the popular choice of the public, the regulators can develop rules that will have these big organizations to serve as a vehicle for social reform (social responsibility); by mitigation of discrimination and poverty, and the establishment of training and polluti on prevention programs (Jensen, 1976). This will work in favor of the governments self-interest by addressing the publics interest. Likewise, the regulators can also develop rules that would benefit big organizations; ultimately the government in ways of getting sponsorship The inefficiency of the ESOs would be a reason for regulators to develop the new rules; because inefficiency of ESOs can lead to abuses and frauds. Frauds that are related to ESOs may crop up from the managerial power doctrine, negotiation and execution of ESO agreements, award and implementation of ESO plans, re-pricing, and disclosure of ESOs; as exampled in the recent corporate crimes at Enron, Tyco and Arthur Anderson (Nwogugu, 2006 pg 9). What happened with the big three companies showed that there was over-reliance on companys internal governance mechanisms for prevention of corporate crime. In order to prevent abuses on ESOs, it is paramount for the regulators to develop new rules; i.e. to enhance transparency and corporate governance, criminalize the misconduct which was formerly regulated by corporate governance mechanisms. Often ESOs in large organizations can result in over-compensation which is substantial to opportunity costs. The costs to cover over-compensation will directly impinge on other areas of a business (opportunity costs) such as capital expenditures and limiting expansion. Establishing proper compensation is difficult; according to Nwogugu (2006 pg 11) the business judgement rule cannot eliminate over-compensation because of the difficulty in determining and applying the reasonableness standard. This is when the regulators come in. There is a potential for regulators to develop an optimal compensation structure to avoid companies from practicing over-compensation, thus encouraging regulators to lay down new rules. Other inefficiencies and abuses of the ESOs that might encourage the regulators to develop new rules include the potential usage of ESOs as a device for taxation avoidance and as device to prevent a takeover (Lenne, Mitchell, and Ramsay, 2004 pg 10). Taxation concessions related to ESO schemes are introduced with the objective of promoting the practice of ESO. But there are concerns of abuse of the concessions given in the form of tax relief for private equity ownership (Lenne, Mitchell, and Ramsay, 2004 pg 19). This will result in people who are not qualified, able to take advantage of the tax incentives. In the scope of takeover prevention, companies might extend their ESO. By doing so, the company is able to redistribute control among its own management which makes a takeover seem unappealing. There is also an issue of companies making trade-offs with their employee by offering ESOs in exchange with wages. It is suggested that ESOs should be a supplement to the employees income rather than being a substitute for wages instead (Lenne, Mitchell, and Ramsay, 2004 pg 10). New regulations are needed in order to monitor and prevent these issues from taking place in the future. Another factor that should prompt the regulators into developing new rules in regards to ESOs is to achieve consistency and comparability. According to a research by Lenne, Mitchell, and Ramsay (2004 pg 14), 513 annual reports of ASX-listed public companies for the financial year ending 2001 was conducted in regards to ESO disclosures. In the research, theyve identified that the disclosure practices varied significantly between companies. Some annual reports disclosed noteworthy detail on the companys various ESO schemes while some, basic information such as the scope of the scheme of their ESOs are not even provided (Lenne, Mitchell, and Ramsay, 2004 pg 14), making comparability impossible because of the inconsistency of the disclosures. Last and most important factor that will motivate regulators to develop new rules is related to ESOs being expensed. ESO plans did not require any expense recognition in terms of the prevailing accounting standards (Sacho and Wingard, 2004 pg 155). This resulted in investors forecasting the value of companies with misleading information as exampled in the 2001 share market bubble burst. Investors get a false impression in regards to the reality of the value of the related transactions which ended up in billions of dollars lost due to the fall of share prices. Markets can only allocate resources efficiently when prices accurately reflect underlying values; which can only be achieved by expensing ESOs (Sacho and Wingard, 2004 pg 155). By expensing ESOs, investors are able to obtain the true input costs of generating corporate revenues, enabling them to efficiently allocate capital and undertake the best possible investment decisions. In addition to that, expensing ESOs will lead to imp rovements in corporate performance and reduction in abuses of the ESOs (Sacho and Wingard, 2004 pg 158). CONCLUSION REFERENCE LIST http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/science?_ob=MImg_imagekey=B6W58-4H68T8F-2-1_cdi=6564_user=170565_orig=browse_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2005_sk=999859997view=cwchp=dGLzVtz-zSkWzmd5=72a8e05e8f6a0ee2f4bea25809e2b586ie=/sdarticle.pdf Shying, M Ngiam, J (eds) 2008, CPA Australia: Accounting Handbook, 2008 edition, Pearson Australia Group Pty Limited, Australia.

Argumentative Essay: Guns Make America! :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   With the possible exception of abortion, no other current issue has split the country in two like the debate surrounding gun control.  Ã‚   Both sides are equally adamant.  Ã‚   The pro gun side, as represented by the National Rifle Association, continues to oppose all gun control measures primarily on the grounds that any law restricting gun ownership is unconstitutional.  Ã‚   Proponents of gun control argue that gun violence is an epidemic out of control across the country, and call on federal lawmakers to stem the flow of blood with anti-gun legislation.  Ã‚   This side won a crucial battle in the debate two years ago with the passage of the so called   â€Å"Brady Bill,† Federal legislation that banned the production and sale of some semiautomatic rifles and initiated a waiting period and background check for gun buyers.  Ã‚   However, more recently than now Republican-controlled Congress, with the backing of the NRA, has reignited that battle with plans to repeal the Brady Bill.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The second amendment to the constitution guarantees Americans the right to keep and bear arms without government interference.   gun control advocates seem ready and eager to disregard this right which is currently being exercised by 70 million Americans.   (METSKA)      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I believe that the governments struggle to keep guns out of the hand of juveniles and criminals is a worthy one, but when it comes   to unconstitutional interrogation then its getting out of control.   The government is currently trying to implement laws that will keep weapons out of the hands of every one. The people on capital hill say that they want a safer America, they want the youth of America to grow up in a caring non-violent environment,   yet all they really want is a more productive best in its class nation.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   History proves that criminal behavior cannot be controlled by the government attempting to regulate inanimate objects.  Ã‚   In other words, criminals will always find a way to get a hold of drugs, guns, what have you.   Proof: drugs may be illegal yet we still have one heck of a problem with them;   thus, if guns of some sort are made illegal then, we will probably end up with one heck of a gun problem. I believe that its not that they need a gun or think its

Cyworld – Case Analysis

Situation Analysis Company: SK Comms Product line Internet Cyworld Social networking Biggest player Value proposition: providing users with a free and clean community with limited advertising and an almost exclusive focus on social networking Life cycle: mature phase of growth NateOn Instant messaging Biggest player Linked to Cyworld Home2 Social media Media platform Video: 50M; +50K/day News: Pictures: +5M/day Cyworld revenue segmentation (2006) Paid items: $67M (72%) Virtual items: $15. 45M Average price: $1 Items sold: 32M 3D virtual items: $0M 010 projected: $(120M – 2010 paid item sales Music: $14. 48M Selling ~200K/day Average price: $0. 50 Can be solved technically with blocking Lack of useful information Don’t want ads in a â€Å"clean† environment Lack of time Customers getting bored Because: lack of relevance Not leveraging personal applications Goals Retain users Customize/targeting experience Increase revenues Grow users Possible Options 1) Paid Produ cts Music accounts for 50% paid revenues (36% of total revenues) Growing at a rate of 10% a year 3-D Virtual Gifts Expected to generate $120m in revenueMaintain current levels of advertising, careful not to disrupt customer preferences for an ad-free environment Pros: low marginal cost, already established market, integrity to original value proposition of a â€Å"clean, ad-free environment†. Cons: ignoring the largest market (890m potential revenues), not solving the attrition problem of people tiring of virtual gifts, 2) Acquire a gaming company (acquiring Empas was approximately $30M) Own company (buy for $3 — $5 M; or enter into a license agreement where we have a gaming contract†¦. reate a certain number of games per year and collect a small percentage of proceeds) Positioning Statement: Marketing Analysis Product Price Market Analysis Founded in 2001, Cyworld initially began as a social networking company before it was acquired in 2003 by SK Telecom. It offe red a trusted and ad-free platform to stay connected with friends and family via a â€Å"minihompy† where users could post information and updates. At the time of acquisition Cyworld had a membership of 1 million before reaching critical mass in 2004 and growing to 21 million in a country of 50 million people.Since then, Cyworld has offered a variety of features such as NateOn, an instant messaging service acquired in 2002, a virtual item market, a music store, a blogging service, a â€Å"plaza† for sharing user-generated media, and a Home2—a hybrid model of blogs and minihompys. Cyworld currently enjoys 90% market penetration for the 20-29 year old demography and accounts for 50% of SK Telecom’s profits with 72% coming from paid items, 16% from advertising, and 12% from mobile services. However, users are tiring of buying virtual items and decreasing site usage (64% decreasing versus only 13% increasing).A function of the site’s privacy model forc es some users to de-register and re-register when relationships get broken instead of simply being able to unfriend or block users as is an option on Facebook. This led to 10,000–15,000 new users signing on per day, but also 5,000 users cancelling their subscription. Recent data has also shown that Cyworld users have become increasingly more segmented with regards to usage frequency and money spent. 27. 5% of users logged on 3 times or more per week, but these users account for 93% of the usage and furthermore 35% of total purchases coming from 15% of users.The original value proposition of Cyworld was focused on providing a clean and safe social network. The addition of features such as the virtual marketplace and media-sharing platform has evolved the site to being a focal point of entertainment and self-expression. The business model of Cyworld must continually reflect the site’s growing importance in the lives of their users. Cyworld must create an enhanced value p roposition for its current customers so they can better focus on revenue extraction from their high- and mid- frequency users.The main springboard from which Cyworld has launched most of their successful add-ons has been its pre-established network of friends which each user has collected over the years. However, these networks, once they are acquired, become a static list of superficial relationships. Though users are currently able to chat with or broadcast to their networks, there is limited actual relationship-building. Cyworld must now step in to remedy this gap in emotional closeness by creating a way for users to engage and strengthen their network.What is the best way to create closeness? Options Our initial analysis of consumer demographics, user behavior and preferences, and overall gaps in the revenue and functionality model, have led us to these possible answers to that question: 1. Restructure existing business model to shift primary revenue-driving focus to advertising , similar to social network competitors, Facebook and Myspace; and paid search competitors Naver and Google. With growth rates of 46% in 2005 and 29% in 2006, Advertising represents a thriving opportunity for Cyworld.While this option could boost Cyworld’s revenues significantly, it poses risks, considering consumer concerns with privacy and the company’s commitment to a clean and free online environment. 2. Develop a new music sales strategy to enable users to download music to personal MP3 players, following the ITunes model. Songs currently downloaded by users can only be used as background music for minihompys. Yet, music represents a profitable option as Cyword would be able to retain more than 50% of revenues.However the streaming to MP3 process could be a complicated and costly transition given the wide range of system and compatibility requirements. 3. Develop user-specific personalized applications, product recommendations, and shopping options to encourage in creased site-usage. Specifically, as the Cyworld High Frequency User ages beyond the 19-29 range, the Cyworld platform for decorating minihompys is becoming less relevant. The company needs to increase the relevance of its services by introducing specificity and targeted marketing.However this may also raise privacy concerns and dilute the previous value proposition of a clean environment. 4. Cyworld could acquire gaming companies to develop games targeted at current users. This would both increase site usage and provide users with an opportunity to further connect with contacts via a friendly and competitive venue. In addition, as users start their own families, the Cyworld gaming environment can serve as an educational and entertaining option for their children. Our answer is online gaming.While Cyworld should try to maintain the current level of sales of music and virtual items (especially with the development of 3-D virtual gifts driving revenue to $120 million in 2007) and fix the privacy glitch which forces users to register and re-register, the majority of their focus should be on gaming. Cyworld should use gaming to allow members to strengthen their preexisting relationships and form new ones. This would eliminate much of the risk of engaging with strangers online and inject accountability into the way people compete in these games.Instead of being a platform where users share what has already happened, users can now log on to Cyworld for a new challenge, a new way to interact with old friends, and the possibility of a new story generated on the site itself. Strategy Implementation: Cy-Game (4 P’s) Product â€Å"Cy-Game† will be created via a combination of Cyworld’s $20M acquisition of Game Me, a network of online gaming technology start-ups in South Korea for exclusive use of their games. User-targeted games will be offered and sold via an application store that Cyworld users can easily access—whether on their home compute rs or mobile phones. Cy-Game’s† launch will target High Frequency Users first, leveraging the consumer information Cyworld has gathered for the past 12 years. The goal of Cy-Game will be to provide users with gaming and entertainment options for every stage of their lives—from the first year college student, to the mid-twenties urban professional, to the mid-thirties married parent looking for a safe and easy pastime to share with their friends, and family. Price The Cy-Game pricing model will be as follows: A. Pay-to-Advance Games: Users will have access to a large database of free games.However, in order to advance to the highest levels of the game, users will be required to purchase special weapons, treasures, and secrets. The fee to acquire each add-on will start at $. 05 and increase incrementally with importance. Theses virtual enhancers are crucial to advance in the game and remain competitive. B. Initial Buy-in Games: Cyworld will extract 5% of the buy-in s from users participating in gambling-intensive games such as poker or bridge. C. Subscription Games: Users can access these games for free or for a fixed price of $36 a year.Paid subscribers can enjoy ad-free gaming, while non-subscribers will be shown a fixed number of ads per hour. We estimate the total annual revenue generated from gaming to be $6M (2 from Free Games and 4 from Paid Games) FINANCIALS HERE. Promotion To promote the launch of â€Å"Cy-Game,† Cy-World will offer all existing users a free two-month ad-free subscription and a $10 credit to be used in the buy-in or pay-to-advance games. CyWorld will also sponsor a â€Å"So You Think You Can Game† contest to be broadcast on Korean MTV.The winner, deemed â€Å"Korea’s Next Top Gamer† will win $50,000. Placement Cy-Game advertising will run predominately on the Cyworld homepage. However, we will also leverage Game Me’s existing marketing strategy to promote the new partnership with Cy- Game. That marketing strategy includes traditional television and print advertisements. City-Wide murals and billboards will also be prominently placed in city centers and near universities. Cyworld’s goal is to attract gamers to Cy-Game while increasing overall Cyworld signup and usage frequency.

Globalization in Higher Education Essay

The most notable challenge in higher education is its rapid globalization and introduction in the international setting. Globalization in higher education refers to the changing nature of universities in terms of research, governance, and interaction with the society. Many universities today are seeking research studies in other universities in some parts of the world. Besides, the academe is allowing more students to study in other universities outside the country in order to accumulate innovative research studies and immerse with other cultures necessary for economic, social, cultural, and political development. These challenges are reflected in the thrust that universities tried to uphold to be in harmony with the emerging global and knowledge-driven economy. Therefore, globalization in higher education requires local universities to move in the expansion of opportunities and international partnerships among universities in order to avail of the most prestigious higher education institutions in the world. In connection, an intellectual researcher on education named Brysk wrote that globalization in higher education is a combination of elements such as connection, cosmopolitanism, communication, and commodification(Wiley, 2009, p.1). Connection means traffic in goods and services, while cosmopolitanism is growth of multiple centers of power and influence. On the other hand, communication means increase in technological capacity that strengthens transnational networks and commodification is the expansion of world markets. Basically, Brysk is trying to integrate economic factors with the concepts of connection, cosmopolitanism, communication and commodification in relation to globalization in higher education. On the other hand, a researcher on education named Mason believes that it is proper to enhance collaboration with other universities in order to achieve international development out of competition in the global marketplace for students. With that, accessible educational structures and teaching processes must be developed to modernize them and make them viable with universities worldwide. Apparently, Mason wants to bring about educational changes and expand a new perspective on the significance of the globalization in higher education. Knowing the relevance of globalization in higher education towards research development, I agree with both the adages of Brysk and Mason. However, it is better to integrate effective systems between financial support of local universities and outside higher education institutions upon students who are willing to avail of globalization in higher education. Participation in international education might be limited to students from wealthy families, hence it is important to analyze the fact that not all students could afford to study out side the country. The thought of introducing globalization in higher education only to students from wealthy families must be eliminated and scholarship grants must be developed for deserving students. In that way, globalization in higher education becomes effective in achieving economic and political development throughout the world. References Wiley. Com. 2009. Globalization in Higher Education. Retrieved March 18, 2009, from media. wiley. com/product_data/excerpt/85/07879758/0787975885. pdf –.