PREFERENCE AND SATISFACTION TOWARDS TWO WHEELERS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO WOMEN CONSUMERS

The producers of Automobile products innovated a new thought of designing the two- wheelers in such a way to attract the women. Today most of the women prefer to travel through two-wheelers. A wide variety of two-wheelers of all category light- weighted, medium – weighted and heavy weighted vehicles have been introduced in the market. The objective of the study is to know the preference and satisfaction of women consumers over two-wheelers and the various aspects, which determines the purchase or buying behavior and to know the expectations of women consumers over two-wheelers. The sample size of the study was conducted in Tiruchirappalli city with 75 respondents through Non-Probability Random Sampling Method. The tools and techniques used were simple percentage, chi-square and ANOVA. The obtained result of the study that majority of the women prefer TVS Scooty and most of the respondents prefer two wheelers due to convenient while driving and majority of the respondents have great impact on colour and model prefer the vehicle. New inventions and designs were introduced to meet the requirements of the current day affaires

A Study on the servicing of culturally different guests for the hotel industry in the U.S.

Since the increasing number of foreign visitors in the U.S. incites the hotel industry to be more competitive, hotels need to expand services to meet the foreign guest\u27s needs and wants in order to stay in the business. Most often foreign guest complaints occur when the hotel services can not satisfy the guests. Misunderstandings and communication barriers occur when the hotel staff is not familiar with foreign guest\u27s culture and does not speak the guest\u27s language. This research was done to help hotel management explore the various cultural characteristics, identify the most frequent complaints of foreign guests, and discern the interpersonal and communication skills needed when interacting with culturally different guests. In addition to the library research, most data on guest complaints was collected by telephone and personal interviews of hotel employees and travel agencies such as front desk clerks, bell personnel, waiters /waitresses, and travel tour guides . The frequent complaints of foreign guests were listed to identify the various needs of several different ethnic groups. An analysis of the cultural characteristics of Japanese, Chinese, French, and German visitors was done and specific examples of cultural differentiae were noted

Stakeholder models, sustainability and the ethics of planned obsolescence

A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts, Applied Ethics for Professionals Johannesburg, 2016In this research report I will be investigating whether companies have an obligation to shareholders or a wider group of stakeholders. If they have an obligation to a wider group of stakeholders, then the question is whether planned obsolescence is an ethical practice that should inform their business and what the role is of ethical leaders in addressing problems such as job losses, environmental damage and conspicuous consumption that result from planned obsolescence. As part of my attempt to answer the research question I will discuss the evolution of views regarding business and the profit motive in relation to shareholders, the multi-fiduciary model, the enlightened shareholder approach and the inclusive stakeholder approach. I will then focus on planned obsolescence as a pervasive business practice and what circumstances morally justify negative consequences which are weighed against the positive effects. Finally, I will propose ethical solutions to the issues raised around planned obsolescence, aimed at achieving specific benefits whilst also limiting the negativity introduced by planned obsolescence.GR201

Essays in Alternative Financial Services

"Alternative financial services" is a term often used to describe the array of financial services offered by providers that operate outside of federally insured banks. More than one in four households in the United States are either unbanked or underbanked, a number that has been growing steadily since 2009, according to the FDIC. These households conduct some or all of their financial transactions outside of the mainstream banking system. Many rely on alternative financial services providers. Rent-to-own stores, pawn shops, and payday lenders are the largest providers of credit within the alternative financial services world. This dissertation studies the rent-to-own industry. The rent-to-own agreement provides consumers immediate access to durable goods without a credit check or down payment. In a typical transaction, an agreement is written for a period of 12 to 24 months. The item is delivered immediately and rental payments are made monthly. At the end of each month, a consumer can continue to rent by paying for an additional period, or can return the good to the store without further obligation. Consumers obtain ownership of the good by renting to term or through early payment of a pre-specified cash price. What makes the study of rent-to-own contracts interesting is the unique nature of the agreement. Neither a credit sale nor a pure lease, this contract is the cornerstone of an industry that serves more than six million Americans each year, operates 9,800 storefronts in all 50 U.S. states and Canada, generates over US$ 8.5 billion in revenues a year, and employs more than 50,000 individuals. The industry has drawn attention from regulators and consumer advocacy groups. At the heart of the debate is the ostensibly high price of the transaction, and the allegedly overwhelming profitability of the firms in the industry. The first chapter of this dissertation introduces and motivates my dissertation research. It is followed by a chapter containing an overview of the different literatures my works builds on. I contribute to these literatures in several ways. To begin with, I develop the most detailed and comprehensive analysis of the rent-to-own contract, the industry's institutional details and its regulatory framework. It is also the first fully independent study of rent-to-own using micro-level data. To the best of my knowledge, there is no other study based on transaction-level data that has not been commissioned by the industry. This dissertation also contains the first piece of work on the rent-to-own industry to employ structural estimation techniques, and therefore the first to credibly analyze the consequences of contract changes, regulatory changes and other counterfactual exercises on social welfare. Chapter 3 analyzes the characteristics of rent-to-own contracts and key components of the industry. Some of the questions I answer along the way are: What is rent-to-own? What makes the contract unique? Is rent-to-own expensive to consumers? Who are the main market participants? What do customers look like and how do they behave? What do firms look like and how do they perform? A proper understanding of the rent-to-own market is essential to assess the value of the transaction to consumers and firms, as well as to design sensible regulatory frameworks. I find that while rent-to-own looks expensive compared to cash retail and credit sale transactions, it does not when benchmarked against pure leases. And those unbanked or underbanked U.S. households wanting to access durable goods may have nowhere else to turn to. There is no evidence that the rent-to-own activity is overwhelmingly profitable. The industry seems to be competitive and the performance of rent-to-own firms stands roughly in the median of the distribution of profitability across industries in the U.S. In chapter 4 I use proprietary micro-level data from a medium-sized rent-to-own chain in Ohio to analyze the behavior of consumers and the transaction-level performance of firms. The reduced-form analysis carried out in this chapter helps us understand contract use in the context of rent-to-own. I address the controversy regarding the proportion of rent-to-own customers that rent items to term. Consumer advocates say the great majority of them do; the industry association states 75% return the rented item within the first four months of the contract. The analysis of micro-level data shows that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The data also reveal that consumers respond to the incentives and trade-offs presented to them by the contract. During the first half of the rent-to-own agreement, consumers mostly make rental payments or return the item. During the second half, as the early purchase option becomes more affordable, an increasing amount of consumers exercise it. Many of them just stop making payments and do not return the item. Delinquency is a serious problem in the industry that significantly affects the performance of rent-to-own firms. Furniture items and appliances, items that suffer the least from delinquency, are the most profitable product categories. The data description chapter motivates the development of a dynamic structural model of consumer behavior and firm performance. Chapter 5 presents the model, describes the estimation procedure and lists the challenges I had to be overcome along the way. I present the results of estimating the model using transaction-level data of rent-to-own contracts, as well as a series of robustness tests in chapter 6. The model does a very good job at fitting observed consumer behavior and the procedure and results. I use these demand estimates to analyze contract design, that is, how the different dimensions of the rent-to-own contract affect consumer satisfaction and firm performance. The counterfactual exercises suggest there exist potential changes to the contract terms that can make both consumers and firms better off. I find that reducing the flexibility of the rent-to-own contract in terms of the return option, while simultaneously decreasing the monthly rental rate, yields higher social welfare. Also, if regulation restricting the shape of the early purchase option schedule was lifted, the rent-to-own firm could alter the schedule in such a way as to make both consumers and the firm better off. This would entail a higher early purchase option price at the beginning of the rent-to-own contract, but this price would decrease faster over time than what the current regulation dictates. Finally, I show that better theft prevention measures could improve the performance of rent-to-own firms significantly. Rent-to-own operators could then transfer part of their increased revenue to consumers in the form of lower monthly rental rates.robustness tests yield favorable results, which increases my confidence in the estimation

Growing businesses in the desert: Case studies of Australian desert micro, small and medium enterprises

Business enterprises, whether they are large or small, contribute to the growth of desert regions in Australia. This report presents case studies of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the desert. The case studies highlight the different business models that exist in desert areas, the barriers and constraints faced by entrepreneurs and the strategies they adopt to sustain and grow their businesses. The report also delves into what motivates people to start a business, and what drives them to continue on despite the many challenges they face. Regardless of the business structure, MSMEs operating in the desert face common challenges. These challenges and barriers revolve around remoteness, distance from suppliers and markets, small local markets and high freight and transport costs, leading to high business transaction costs. However, the case studies showed that numerous businesses continue to sprout in the desert, many manage to grow, and many thrive – even during times of economic crisis such as in the recent global financial crisis.&nbsp

The Vietnamese shrimp trade: livelihoods analysis of stakeholders and market chain analysis

Aquaculture and capture fisheries in Vietnam have been increasing fast in the last decade, especially aquaculture growth rate is 12% for the 1999 – 2003 period, contributing a significant part into the hunger eradication and poverty reduction1. Vietnam is to be ranked into one of the countries potential to produce the aquatic economic in the world, and the fact is that, after 40 years of establishing, the fisheries sector has made remarkable contributions to the country. By the list, at the moment the aquatic products make up about 4 - 5% of GDP and create job opportunities for over 3 three million employees (VASEP, 2004), in which the largest contribution is from shrimp farming. [PDF contains 124 pages.