International Economics of Thailand Essay

The country of Thailand is located in the southeast Asia region, south of China and immediately bordering Burma to the west, Laos to the East and Cambodia to the south. Around 65 million people inhabit Thailand with the capital and its largest city being Bangkok; the national currency is the baht. After a series of political and military turmoil thrashed the country in the mid 2000’s, December of 2007 earmarked the reinstatement of a democratic government as well as the inclusion of full democratic elections. The official language is Thai and has remained that since the country’s early beginnings. Buddhism encompasses most the Thailand’s population in terms of religion, nearly 95%, with all belonging to the Theravada denomination. On a global scale Thailand is quite a large country for how small it is geographically; it ranks 50th as far as total area, and is the 20th most populous in the world. Thailand is abundant in both land and labor factors of production. The land measures roughly 510,890 sq km and is full of natural resources such as tin, rubber, natural gas, timber, lead, fish, and many metals. The large amount of agricultural production lead to a GDP of $539.3 billion in 2009. The 2009 household consumption expenditure was 2.05% even though the real GDP growth rate was -2.2%2. The final factor of production for Thailand, labor, is another one of their most abundant resources. In 2009, the labor force was comprised of 38.43 million people. They were divided between 42.4% working in agriculture, 19.7% in industry, and 37.9% in services3. This is consistent with the large amount of arable land throughout the country. With much production occurring in the agricultural sector, is makes sense that Thailand exports agricultural commodities. The country also exports machinery and electronic components, and jewelry. The machinery and electronic parts are a major export because of the size of the labor force.  Jewelry exports are large due to the amount of natural metals and jewels found in the land. The exports drive the economy and account for more than half of GDP. In 2009, exports totaled $150.7 billion. The major importers are the United States at 10.94%, China at 10.58%, Japan with 10.32%, Hong Kong with 6.22%, and Australia importing 5.62%3. The global financial crisis of 2008-2009 severely hurt Thailand’s exports with most industries dropping a large percent. Imports were also affected the financial crises. in 2009, they totaled $118 billion. Most imports were in capital goods, intermediate goods, and raw materials. This is because of the lack of capital factors of production and the large labor force. Thailand imports from Japan (18.7%), China (12.73%), Malaysia (6.41%), United States (6.31%), and UAE (4.98%)3. [pic] It seems to be that the groups benefiting most from trade are the farmers and factory workers. The farmers have the largest labor force and therefore the highest amount of exports in the country. The factory workers are also benefiting from the import of cheap intermediate goods and raw materials from China and Malaysia. They then use the abundance of labor to produce machinery for export. In 2009, Thailand had a trade surplus of roughly $32.7 billion. Long before the liberalization of Thailand’s economy and its move to become an export-promoting economy in the mid 1980s, Thai governments have pursued Free Trade Agreements (FTA’s) and economic cooperation with fellow countries in the Eastern Hemisphere and of course, the USA. In 1967, Thailand help create the Association for South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN was founded to promote nation building, tackle communism and increase economic cooperation. This act has served as the foundation for establishing future FTA’s. Continuous dialog and a desire for economic growth led to the eventual signing of the ASEAN Free-Trade Agreement (AFTA). This paved the way for the elimination of tariffs for goods with 40% of its free on-board value having local input from ASEAN member countries (asean). Following the success of AFTA and its role in facilitating local  manufacturing industries, ASEAN countries sought to expand these FTA’s. This has led to signed FTA’s between ASEAN and China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, Thai and US authorities have been working on an inconclusive US-Thailand FTA since 2004. These agreements have grown Thailand’s export markets and such access to vast growing economies has allowed Thailand to quickly return to growth following the 2008 Global Recession. Unfortunately, with all the free-trade agreements, Thailand continues to have multiple barriers to entry for most foreign entrants and even some domestic ones. They are primarily in the service and transport sectors as well as sectors with significant local production. These include tariffs, quantitative barriers, customs barriers and taxation. Few of the most affected industries are finance, law, telecommunications, air and maritime transport, wood, textiles, transport equipment and professional services. In the finance industry, foreign investors are allowed a limited equity investment of up to 49% of the company. Any investment that amounts to greater than that is treated on a case-by-case basis by the government. In addition, foreign banks have limitations on their lending capabilities and the expansion of branches. Telecommunications also limits foreign investment and in addition to this, the government allocates frequency spectrum that have resulted in two telecommunications companies dominating the industry (Dee, 2004) (US Embassy, Bangkok, 2009). On the other hand, foreigners may own Law firms in Thailand, but only Thai-citizens may provide legal services. At-best, in certain cases, foreign citizens can serve in a limited capacity as a consultant. Such a nationality requirement extends to other professional services such as accountants and physicians as well where Thai-citizens have a higher priorit and only non-citizens that are a resident of Thailand and fluent in Thai are eligible. Industries such as wood and wood products (12.5% tariff), transport equipment (31% tariff) and textiles (25% tariff) continue to have import tariffs and licenses to encourage local production and ensure it is not  harmed. All of these tariffs are between 2 and 4 times the global average (Dee, 2004). Such tariffs are common practice all over the world to protect local businesses. In addition to these tariffs, Thailand’s barriers include several indirect methods that have a less tangible impact. Thailand’s complicated tax system is one such example. When one adds up the import tariff, excise duties and other sales tax on imported alcohol, the price is 400% higher. To complement these barriers, Thailand’s government adapted a â€Å"Buy Thai† policy, much to the resentment of foreign investors. In addition, the Customs department reserves the right to arbitrarily increase the import value of goods (US Embassy, Bangkok, 2009). Lastly, the lack of enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights and Patent laws cost US companies $400 million in 2007 (US Embassy, Bangkok, 2009). Pharma companies and Hollywood have had the most direct impact due to copyright infringements, delayed patents and its non-enforcement. Such haphazard barriers by the Thai government can dissuade potential investors. These barriers have a multi-purpose aim. Some tariffs are meant to be revenue generating tariffs, while others cost escalating. These cost-escalating tariffs stand to protect a local industry such as textile manufacturing, wood and timber logging. Barriers in the maritime and air transport have large capital requirements to enter it as well as a vested government interest in the form of state-owned airlines, airports and ports. Other barriers related to haphazard law enforcement and the â€Å"buy Thai† policy and seem less so economic barriers and more so politically motivated ones. A reversal in such barriers would allow air-passenger transport, maritime transport and communications to benefit the most and enable the finance, law and professional services industry to shore up its presence in Thailand while continuing to expand trade, commerce and therefore economic growth in the country. Simultaneously, the government aimed to stimulate domestic and foreign private investment over the coming decade by adapting Export Promotion (EP)  policies that decreased import tariffs, eliminated export tariffs and established the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI). While initial investments were aimed at domestic-market production, this quickly moved to export-oriented production that was not limited by the size of the domestic market. This led to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) ballooning from $40 million in 1970-1974 to $19 billion in 2006 (Kohpaiboon). Countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan had successfully adapted to export promotion policies while even more countries saw the negative effects of import substitution policies (South America). These polar effects point out the benefits of a trade-centered integrated economy. An exponential increase in FDI requires a stable banking system that is globally integrated. Unlike its Asian peers, almost half of Thailand’s 37 banks are foreign banks such as HSBC, Citibank and Standard Chartered. This has resulted in a strong banking system with assets worth 200% of GDP (Datamonitor, 2010). Other developing countries continue struggle with a government dominated banking system and low population penetration. Sustained growth in FDI has had spillover effects on Thailand’s human capital development and R&D projects to further aid economic growth. The BOI, since 2006 has been actively promoting R&D investments, bagging projects from companies such as Toyota, Honda and Siam Cement. In addition to this, the government has allocated $3 billion in the next 5-year plan for R&D projects with institutes such as Asian Institute of Technology taking lead (Datamonitor, 2010). Such spending has allowed domestic companies to adapt current technologies used world over while evolving new ones. This is a drastic change from the mid-1980s in Thailand when oxes and manual labor characterized agriculture and industry alike. In order for the results of R&D projects to be useful and then successful, an educated workforce is necessary. Starting in 1960, Thailand expanded its schooling system and made schooling mandatory for the first 7 years (Ministry of Education, 1998). A full generation later, the basic impact is visible. By 2006, Thailand boasted a 92% literacy rate, comparable in the region (Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia boast 90%+  literacy rates) and allocates 27% of its national budget to education (Malaysia allocated 20%) (UNDP, 2009). One current constraint is that 80% of the current workforce has had only primary education. However, the long-term impact of education should change this statistic over the coming decade and encourage further labor efficiencies. Unfortunately, a primary educated workforce is not Thailand’s main constraint to growth. In the years following a decade of high-paced growth, the Asian Financial Crisis, consequent political upheavals, natural disasters, corruption and such threatened to derail the Thai story of growth. In spite of all this growth, the high short-term external debt of its government nearly bankrupted Thailand, caused the stock exchange to lose 75% of its market value and devalued the then-pegged Baht by over 50%. The Thai economy came to a halt with layoffs across industries, depressed asset prices and a 12% cumulative drop in output for 1997-1998. This led to an inevitable $40 billion IMF-led rescue package for the most affected Asian economies (Hunter, Kaufman, & Krueger, 1999). The package allowed Thailand’s economy to stay solvent and resume growth only in 1999. The Asian Financial Crisis marked a start in Thailand’s sporadic political upheavals. This culminated in 2006 when Prime Minister Thaksin was removed from office in a bloodless coup while he attending the UN General Assembly in front of the world’s eyes. The 4 years since has seen scores of public demonstrations, 3 Prime Ministers and a riot culminating in the summer 2010 stand-off between the armed forces and pro-Thaksin demonstrators in central Bangkok. Meanwhile, neighboring countries such as Philippines, Vietnam and even Indonesia have moved toward political stability with their leaders transitioning their country into a period of economic growth (Marshall, 2010). These upheavals are a source of concern to international and domestic businesses and have a negative ripple effect through the economy. In fact, Thaksin is not the only corrupt politician to grace Thailand. Corruption plagues many institutions and bureaucracy’s there. Transparency international ranked Thailand 84th out of 178 countries on the Global  Corruption Index with China falling ahead in 78th position and India just behind in 87th place. Like most sizable developing countries, corruption is rampant in Thailand and other high-profile cases include the governor of Bangkok, Mr. Apirak. In 2009, the Thai government reported that the most number of corruption complaints within government agencies were filed against the Customs Department (Datamonitor, 2010). Taking cue from Singapore, Thailand must be more pro-active in reducing this rampant corruption in order to focus on economic and social development. Singapore along with New Zealand and Denmark topped the least for least corrupt countries (Zee News, 2010). Another growth constraint is natural disasters. In 2004, an earthquake followed by a tsunami caused widespread havoc and destruction. While Thailand’s direct impact was lower than Indonesia, with over 5,000 lives lost, 30,000 fishing boats and 120,000 tourism jobs lost, its effects cannot be ignored. Such continued disasters can hamper progress and instead undo years of economic development. Countries ranging from Indonesia to Seychelles were affected by this (United Nations, 2005). As the 1997 Financial Crisis demonstrated, Thailand is very integrated into the world’s economy. Therefore, with the arrival of the Great Recession in 2008, demand for its export-oriented production began to fall. Thailand’s dependence on exports put the country into a yearlong recession that it is now out of. In fact, Thailand is expected to grow at 4% this year. This quick recovery has been due to the deliberate public spending undertaken by the government. With the government undertaking a 5-year plan to boost infrastructure spending and reduce poverty, Thailand should see sustained growth over the coming years. As Thailand emerges from the Great Recession of 2008, there are several helpful pointers Thailand has taken from its experiences since the Asian Financial Crisis. The Thai government has learned of the benefits of a balanced budget, they successfully reduced government debt between 2002 and 2008, repaid IMF loans (2 years early) and regained growth. While corruption continues to exist, Thailand has an increasingly tougher National Counter  Corruption Commission and current Prime Minister Abhisit has proposed a Reconciliation Plan to create a more transparent, clean government. The tsunami has resulted in the implementation of an emergency alert system thereby preventing future calamities, social and economic losses. With a majority of new growth coming from Asia, Thailand is optimally situated as an export economy in the region. Strong historical ties to the US will ensure economic cooperation as the US economic recovery progresses. Continued spending on education will result in an efficient, productive labor-force allowing Thailand to grow from just an international finance center to an advanced technology driven, export oriented economy in the years to come. Economic policy outlook The government is pushing ahead with a major fiscal stimulus program worth Bt1.4trn (US$43bn), which is to run until 2012. However, the fiscal position is weak, and the government could struggle to finance the program in full without risking future financial stability. This second-stage stimulus program, known as Thai Khem Khaeng (Strong Thailand), centers on infrastructure projects as well as investment in agriculture, education and health. Owing to the fact that the government has only limited fiscal freedom (constitutional restrictions cap the budget deficit in any year at 20% of total expenditure), the majority of the programs spending is off-budget and is financed through increased borrowing. The government actually plans to reduce budgetary spending in fiscal year 2009/10 (October-September) in an attempt to contain the fiscal deficit, which ballooned in 2008/09 owing to a first-stage stimulus program that included cash grants and subsidies. The government is proposing another expansionary budget in 2010/11. As the economy begins to recover in 2010, the Bank of Thailand (BOT, the central bank) will begin to raise interest rates to contain inflation. As for the fiscal policy, the government will run a substantial budget deficit in 2010-11, but it should be narrower than in 2009, when it reached the equivalent of 4.4% of GDP. After reducing planned expenditure in 2009/10  by Bt200bn (US$5.8bn), the government proposes to increase it by about Bt400bn in 2010/11. It is also stimulating the economy with the Thai Khem Khaeng program of off-budget expenditure. Whether or not the program succeeds in stimulating growth, hinges mostly on its implementation. There is a risk that some funds will be lost to corruption or will be wasted, as was highlighted by a recent admission by the Comptrollergenerals Department that funding for projects previously rejected by the Budget Bureau had been approved owing to the government!s determination to proceed with economic stimulus. Assuming that the government receives full parliamentary approval to borrow another Bt400bn in the next three years, public debt could rise sharply relative to GDP in 2010-11. However, the finance minister, Korn Chatikavanij, recently said that as revenue growth so far in 2009/10 had exceeded expectations, the government might not need to borrow as much as it had originally planned. The BOT will begin to tighten monetary policy in second half of 2010 as the economy starts to recover and core inflation (which excludes raw foods and energy) accelerates. However, the central bank will not raise interest rates sharply, as there are still major risks to the recovery, and core inflation, which stood at 0.5% in January-February, remains at the low end of the official target range of 0.5-3%. The BOT has also expressed concern that prematurely raising the one-day repurchase rate†which stands at 1.25%, having been lowered by 250 basis points between December 2008 and April 2009†³could lead to inflows of foreign capital, pushing up asset prices to unsustainable levels and causing the baht to strengthen further. Works Cited CIA. (2010). Thailand. Retrieved November 20, 2010, from CIA – The World Factbook: www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html Datamonitor. (2010). Thailand, In-depth PESTLE Insights. Datamonitor. Falvey, L. (2001). Thai Agriculture: Golden Cradle of Millennia. White Lotus Co Ltd. Hunter, W., Kaufman, G., & Krueger, T. (1999). The Asian Financial Crisis: Origins, Implications and Solutions. Ministry of Education. (1998). History of Thai Education. Retrieved November 2010, from Ministry of Education, Thailand: www.moe.go.th/main2/article/e-hist.htm UNDP. (2009). United Nations Development Programme. United Nations. United Nations. (2005). Impact on Thailand. United Nations. Zee News. (2010, October 26). India Slips Three Places in Global Corruption Rankings. Retrieved November 2010, from Zee News: www.zeenews.com/news663930.html Citation â€Å"Thailand.† Country Report. Thailand (2010): 1-27. Business Source Premier. EBSCO. Web. 13 Dec. 2010 ASEAN. (n.d.). Overview – asean. Retrieved from association of southeast asian nations: http://www.aseansec.org/64.htm Dee, P. (2004). A Systematic Evaluation of Services Trade Barriers: The Case of Thailand. Washington DC: Australian National University. â€Å"Thailand†. World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agnecy. Accessed November 23, 2010. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html â€Å"Thailand Natural Resources†. Index Mundi. Updated 2010. Accessed November 23, 2010. http://www.indexmundi.com/thailand/natural_resources.html

Advertising Creativity Matters

Advertising Creativity Matters MICAEL DAHLEN Stockholm School of Could â€Å"wasteful† advertising creativity that does not add to the functionaiity of the advertisement (i. e. , it neither enhances recaii and iiking of the advertising, nor Economics micael,[email  protected] se increases comprehension and persuasiveness of the communicated message) be useful? An experimentai study shows that it can. By signaling greater effort on behaif SARA ROSENGREN Stockholm School of Economics sara. [email  protected],se of the advertiser and a greater ability of the brand, advertising creativity enhances both brand interest and perceived brand quaiity.The effects are mediated by consumer-perceived creativity, suggesting that consumers are important Judges of FREDRIK TORN creativity. Bringing advertising creativity into new iight, the resuits provide impiications Stockholm School of for the development, measurement, and positioning of creative advertising. Economics fredrik,[email   protected] se INTRODUCTION There is no guarantee that creativity in an advertisement makes it more memorable or appealing to consumers (Kover, Goldberg, and James, 1995). In fact, research by, for example, Kover, James, and Sonner (1997) suggests that many creative advertising efforts may be wasted, in the sense hat they do not add to the functionality of the advertisement (i. e. , they neither enhance consumer recall and liking of the advertising, nor increase comprehension and persuasiveness of the communicated message). However, this article argues that such wasteful advertising creativity may have other positive effects. Previous research on advertising spending has found that, when bypassing functional aspects of high spending, for example, that bigger advertisements increase attention or that repeated exposures facilitate comprehension and breed liking, wasteful expenses have positive effects on brand perceptions (e. g..Ambler and HoUier, 2004; Kirmani and Rao, 2000). The pres ent research investigates whether or not the same conclusion follows with respect to advertising creativity. A common view is that creativity is a mission of the entire advertising industry, its raison d'etre (Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan, 2003). The fact that 3 9 2 JDUBOIIL OF (IDUERTISinG BESEflRCH September 2 0 0 8 advertising agencies spend a great deal of time and energy competing for creative awards, even though they are not sure that these efforts actually increase the functionality of their work, suggests that creativity is perceived to be important in its own right (e. g. Helgesen, 1994; Kover, James, and Sonner, 1997). In a frequently cited study. Gross (1972) showed that wasteful advertising creativity in advertising agencies, in the form of an abundance of creative ideas, yield more effective advertisements in the long run. This article takes the notion of wasteful advertising creativity to the level of the individual advertisement to see whether an abundance of creativit y (that does not enhance functionality) in a single advertisement yields positive effects. Building on the research on marketing signals, we suggest it does. Studies show that the very employment of various marketing elements, such s warranties (long-lasting) or price (correlates with quality), sends signals about the brand that guide consumer evaluations and choice (e. g. , Kirmani and Rao, 2000). Advertising expense has been found to be a signal that consumers interpret as the marketers' efforts due to their belief in the brand (Kirmani, 1990; Kirmani and Wright, 1989) or as proof of the brand's superiority or â€Å"brand DOI: 10. 2501/S002184990808046X ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MAHERS fitness† (Amhler and Hollier, 2004): The greater the expense, the more confident the marketer and the more fit the brand. Categorizing advertising creativity as a arketing signal, we expect that greater creativity signals more effort (as creative advertising is harder to produce than â€Å"nofr ills† advertising) and greater fitness (as the sender must have the knowledge resources to take the extra communicative leap and communicate in a nontraditional marmer) and thus produces more favorable brand perceptions. By investigating the signaling effects of advertising creativity on brand perceptions, we bypass the functional aspects that have previously been in focus in creativity research. Previous research focuses on intermediate effects such as advertising recall, liking, and comprehension (e. . , Kover, James, and Sonner, 1997; Stone, Besser, and Lewis, 2000; Till and Baack, 2005), or different facets of creativity, such as originality, meaningfulness, and emotions (e. g. , Ang and Low, 2000; Kover, Goldberg, and James, 1995; White and Smith, 2001). As advertising (and creativity) can take many shapes and forms, it is not very surprising that most authors seem to agree that the research on advertising creativity to date is troubled by contradictory and inconclusive f indings (e. g. , ElMurad and West, 2004; Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan, 2003: Stone, Besser, and Lewis, 2000).For instance, some (awardwinning, which is often the criterion in these studies) creative advertising may be very original and yield high recall, but low liking, whereas other advertising could produce strong emotions and liking, but be harder to recall. Avoiding such obstacles may be achievable by focusing on creativity as a signal in itself, rather than its facets and intermediate effects. The present study includes a number of elements that are novel to advertising creativity research. First, rather than using real advertisements as representatives of more versus less creative advertising, the tudy manipulates advertising creativity in the same manner as Ambler and Hollier (2004) manipulate advertising expense. Thus, we are able to compare advertising for the same brands with the same messages and control for the functionality of the tested advertisements. Most research to date has employed real advertisements, which makes it harder to discern the effects of the creativity in itself, as it also becomes a matter of different brands with different messages. Second, our manipulation does not produce creative advertising that is â€Å"outstanding,† but rather moderately creative. As noted by Haberland and Dacin (1992), the focus n awards creates a dichotomous view of advertising as creative yes/no. It is more likely that advertising varies in its degree of creativity. Not all advertisements win prizes for creativity, but that does not mean that those advertisements are not creative. Third, in addition to manipulating advertising creativity, we also measure consumer-perceived creativity. Previous research has usually kept the degree of creativity â€Å"hidden† from consumers, utilizing awards and expert judgments as assessments of creativity. Whereas advertising effects materialize to a considerable degree without consumer awareness (e. g..He ath and Nairn, 2005), the present study tests the notion that consumer explicit thoughts about advertising creativity matter. ADVERTISING CREATIVITY AS A MARKETING SIGNAL Most markets are flooded with products for consumers to choose between. As consumers are unable to sample all products that are available to them, or even assess the quality of all the products they have actually consumed, they rely on marketing signals (Kirmani and Rao, 2000). Ad- vertising expense is the marketing signal that has gained most attention in advertising research. According to Kirmani and Wright (1989), advertising expense is an ndicator of marketing effort: The more money spent on advertising, the greater the effort—meaning that the advertiser must really believe in the product. Spending a great deal of money on advertising is a more powerful signal to consumers about the quality of the product than the content of the advertising, as the advertiser â€Å"put their money where their mouth is. † More money means greater risk, and thus consumers feel safe that the advertiser will deliver on her promise (Kirmani, 1997). In tests of advertising expense, Kirmani (1990,1997) manipulates advertising sizes, colors, endorsers, and repetition and finds hat they may all increase perceived marketing effort. Interestingly, Kirmani (1990) notes that it is possible that perceived advertising quality (â€Å"includes the care and creativity used to design the ad†) could also have an effect on perceptions of marketing effort. However, Kirmani (1990) does not manipulate advertising quality (and more specifically, advertising creativity). Such a manipulation would result in perceptions of greater marketing effort. Coming up with a creative concept is more demanding for the advertiser than simply applying a standard solution based one's own or others' previous efforts.Consumers are â€Å"advertising literate† enough today to infer that creative advertising is probably the result of a development process that is both longer and more costly (they may even refer this to the employment of a â€Å"fancy advertising agency†). HI: Advertising creativity increases perceived marketing effort. Ambler and Hollier (2004) suggest that advertising expense may not only serve September 2 0 0 8 JDUIIOIIL OF HDUERTISIOG RESEHRCH 3 9 3 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY IVIATTERS An extra degree of creativity may send signais about tiie advertiser tiiat rub off on consumer perceptions of tiie brand. as a signal of effort, but also as a more irect signal of â€Å"brand fitness. † Referring to the biological theory of handicapping, they argue that advertising expense may be a signal of wealth—arguably, the advertiser can afford such wastefully expensive advertising. The wealth, in tum, could be interpreted as proof of previous success due to the brand's great ability to serve the market. Extending the reasoning to advertising creativity, wasteful creativity (i. e. , the surplus creativity that does not add to the functionality of the advertisement) could work as a signal of wealth as well, wealth in the form of knowledge and smartness. For example, the literature n rhetorical figures (which are a form of wasteful creativity as they convey nessages in unnecessarily clever ways) suggests that they may signal smartness on behalf of the sender (e. g. , Toncar and Munch, 2001, 2003). However, this notion has not been tested. Ambler and Hollier's (2004) concept of â€Å"brand fitness† is especially interesting in light of the growing body of research on perceived corporate ability. Perceived corporate ability refers to consumers' beliefs that the company is able to improve the quality of existing products and to generate new products innovatively (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006).Studies show that perceived corporate ability influences the success of new-product introductions and marketing activities, as well as the market value of the entire company. In fact, perceived corporate ability may be the most powerful source of sustainable competitive advantage (Brown and Dacin, 1997; Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006). Advertising creativity could be a signal of brand ability (the equivalent of corporate ability on the individual, advertised, brand level). Coming up with a creative advertising concept signals the ability and desire to â€Å"think outside the box† and think in new and different ways compared to he competition and compared to the brand's history. Thus, advertising creativity says less about the brand's historical success and more about what could be expected from it in the future. H2: Advertising creativity increases customers' perceived abuity in the brand. ADVERTISING CREATIVITY'S EFFECTS ON BRAND PERCEPTIONS Recent advertising literature argues that the most important and reliable measures of advertising effectiveness are consumers' perceptions and experiences of the brand rather than of the advertising its elf. This influence is due to the facts that consumers are not able to remember r discern all the advertising they encounter (e. g.. Heath and Nairn, 2005; Weilbacher, 2003). Powerful advertising affects consumers' perceptions of the brand immediately (Hall, 2002). As creativity is supposed to make powerful advertising, the expectation is that more versus less powerful advertising results in immediate effects on brand perceptions. The main brand perception that has been uncovered in previous studies of marketing signals is perceived quality. As mentioned previously, perceived marketing effort signals confidence on behalf of 3 9 4 JOUIIIlflL DfflDUERTISinGRESEflRCH September 2 0 0 8 he advertiser (e. g. , Kirmani and Rao, 2000). Perceived brand ability would also signal high quality, as corsumers expect the brand to improve quality over the competition. Therefore, the hypothesis is that advertising creativity enhances perceived brand quality. H3: Advertising creativity enhances custo mers' perceptions of brand quality. Conventional wisdom holds that creative advertising pushes the message into consumers' minds (e. g. , El-Murad and West, 2004; Kover, James, and Sonner, 1997). However, recent literature argues that the individual brand does not really have much to say (e. g. Ehrenberg, Barnard, Kennedy, and Bloom, 2002; Heath and Nairn, 2005). In the massive marketspace and mindspace competition, it is increasingly difficult to be unique and virtually impossible to persuade consumers to buy your product (Weilbacher, 2003). In line with this notion, a survey among top-level agency creatives ranked the sameness among brands as the number one reason for improved creativity; rather than communicating a specific message (which is likely to resemble competitors'), advertising creativity must make the brand interesting and exciting (Reid, Whitehill King, and DeLorme, 1998).This goal is particularly relevant to established brands, which make up the majority of the market place. The greatest enemies to these brands are predictability and consumer disinterest (Machleit, Allen, and Madden, 1993). Brands must continuously reinvent themselves and challenge expectations to stay in touch with consumers. This touch could be achievable with creative advertising. Creative advertising in itself suggests that the brand has something interesting to offer, as it signals effort and confidence, and ability to deliver ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MAHERS something different from the competition. Therefore, the study expects a positive elationship between advertising creativity and brand interest. H4: Advertising creativity enhances brand interest. CONSUMERS AS JUDGES OF ADVERTISING CREATIVITY Most research on advertising creativity conceptualizes it as a â€Å"hidden tool† for advertising professionals to create powerful advertising. That is, it is important that the professionals perceive the advertising to be creative for it to be effective, but consumers are not supposed to think in such terms, rather just to like the advertising, remember it, and select the brand (e. g. , Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan, 2003; Stone, Besser, and Lewis, 2000; Till and Baack, 2005).However, a professional judgment of advertising creativity is no guarantee that the advertising will be successful (e. g. , Kover, James, and Sonner, 1997). For instance. Stone, Besser, and Lewis (2000) found that while 70 percent of the advertising that consumers remembered and liked was categorized as creative by trained judges, 47 percent of strongly disliked advertising was also categorized as creative by the judges. White and Smith (2001) compare creativity ratings between advertising professionals and the general public and found that the two groups differed in their ratings. The question is, who is the better judge?Kover, James, and Sonner (1997) argue that less professionalism is needed in the judgments of creativity, as at the end of the day, consumers' perceptions are what m atter. The present study puts this argument to the test by testing whether manipulated advertising creativity (pretested on advertising professionals) has a direct effect on our hypothesized variables, without consumers being aware of this â€Å"hidden tool,† or if consumer perceptions of advertising creativity are necessary and mediate the effects. The hypothesis is that consumer perception of the advertising creativity is the first step n the process that leads to all the hypothesized effects in H1-H4: H5: The effects of advertising creativity are mediated by consumerperceived creativity. METHOD To test the hypotheses, we must be able to compare responses between consumers who have been exposed to a more creative versus a less creative advertisement for the same brand with the same message. Furthermore, to test with certainty whether consumer-perceived advertising creativity is an intervening, mediating step between manipulated creativity and our hypothesized effects, we mu st measure creativity perception before versus after he other variables (for H5 to hold, creativity perception should have a greater effect when measured before the other variables, cf. Kenny, 1975). To this end, we chose a 2 (more creative/less creative advertisement) X 2 (perceived creativity before/after) experimental design where informants were randomly assigned to one of the four cells. To avoid stimulus specific effects, four different brands and accompanying messages were used for a total of 16 experiment cells. All four brands are established and well known in their respective product categories (pain relief, coffee, vodka, and condoms). We chose well-known rands for two reasons. First, the majority of advertising in major media are for established brands (e. g. , Kent, 2002). Second, as consumer perceptions of wellknown brands are harder to influence than those of unfamiliar brands, the test brands make a more robust test of our hypotheses. Research instrument development Similar to Ambler and Hollier (2004), we wanted to ensure that only the wastefulness of creativity would differ between advertisements, not their functionality with respect to what was communicated. Therefore, we needed to develop advertising stimuli differing only with respect to the creative execution.To this end, a method similar to that of Toncar and Munch (2003) was used. Four pairs of print advertisements were developed, one pair for each brand. Print advertisements usually have three main elements: the brand, text, and pictorial. In our manipulation, the brand and the pictorial was kept constant, while the text was varied to communicate the same message in a more (employing rhetorical figures, cf. Tom and Eves, 1999) or less (without rhetorical figures) creative way. The number of words was kept constant. The advertisements were pretested to make sure that the pairs communicated the same message, and equally strongly.Twenty plus twenty consumers from the target population (be low) were asked â€Å"how well do you agree that the advertisement's main message is. .. † and rated one of the advertisements from each pair on a scale of 1 = totally disagree/ 7 = totally agree. There were no significant differences within the pairs (A^more creative = 5. 4 verSUS Mjess creative = 5. 5). Next, 12 plus 12 advertising professionals from eight major agencies rated one of the advertisements from each pair on creativity (scale: 1 = not at all creative/ 7 = very creative). The more creative advertisements rated significantly higher than the less creative advertisements Mmore creative = 4. 0 verSUS Mjess creative = 2. 7, p < 0. 01). Notably, although significantly different from each other, neither of the two groups of advertisements was seen as particularly creative. However, September 2 0 0 8 JOURIIIIL OF HDUERTISIOG RESERRCH 3 9 5 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MAHERS By focusing too much on award-winning advertising and treating creativity as a yes/no variabie, one mis ses out on ail the improvements that can be made and effects that can be attained at more moderate leveis. â€Å"How much do you think development of the advertisement cost? † (1 = very cheap/7 = very expensive), and â€Å"How uch time do you think has been devoted to the development of the advertisement? † (1 = very little/7 = very much). We included the variables both separately and as an index (r = 0. 52) in the analyses. Perceived brand ability ( H2) was mea- we are not interested in the absolute levels of creativity; the goal is to compare differences in degree of creativity. This approach differs from most previous research, which often employs â€Å"outstanding† (award-winning) creative advertisements. The fact that the degree of creativity is fairly low in our more creative advertisements makes our test of the effects of advertising creativity more robust.It also makes the results more applicable in practice, as most advertisements do not win awards, but may still be creative (e. g. , Haberland and Dacin, 1992; Kover, James, and Sonner, 1997). Procedure We employed a procedure similar to Ambler and Hollier (2004). The participants were part of an internet panel of a professional market research firm and recruited to represent a cross section of the working population (56/44 female-male breakdown, age range 18-65 years, average 39 years). In total, 1,284 consumers participated in the study, making a cell size of approximately 80 respondents. Asked to participate in an advertising retest, consumers were randomly exposed to one of the stimulus print advertisements online and then directly filled out a questionnaire. Measures A number of measures were employed to test the advertisement's functionality (which is supposed to be the same across conditions): Brand identification w as measured as an open-ended question, where respondents typed in the brand name they believed was featured in the advertisement. Key message identification w as measured by asking respondents to tick the correct message out of four alternatives (the alternatives were the same across all cells and were designed to be plausible for all four rands). Furthermore, we measured difficulty of comprehension (1 = very easy to comprehend/7 = very difficult to comprehend), advertising attitude (â€Å"What is your opinion about the advertisement you just saw? â€Å"), and brand attitude [â€Å"What is your opinion of (brand)? ,† both on a scale from 1 (very bad) to 7 (very good)]. We also measured brand familiarity and price estimates to rule out confounding effects of consumer knowledge or competing signals (cf. Kirmani and Rao, 2000). Similar to Till and Baack (2005) familiarity with the brand was measured before exposure (1 = never heard of it/7 = know t very well). Price estimates were measured after exposure with an open-ended question where respondents were asked to type in how much they estimated that the advertised product cost (employ ing familiar brands and products in the study, we expected no differences between conditions). We calculated differences in price estimates within the advertising pairs and compared them by product category. The following measures were used for the hypothesis tests: Perceived marketing effort ( HI) was mea- sured with two items on a 7-point scale. 3 9 6 JOUBflflL OFflDUERTISlOGflESEflRCHS eptember 2 0 0 8 ured with three items (1 = do not agree/ 7 = agree completely): â€Å"(Brand) is smart,† â€Å"(Brand) is likely to develop valuable products in the future,† and â€Å"(Brand) is good at solving consumers' problems. † We included the items both separately and as an index (Cronbach's alpha = 0. 83) in the analyses. Perceived brand quality (H3) was as- sessed by asking: â€Å"What is the general quality level of the brand? † with answers given on a scale from 1 (very low quality) to 7 (very high quality). Brand interest (H4) was measured with two items on a 7-point scale: â€Å"I find (brand) interesting,† and â€Å"I want to buy the brand† 1 = do not agree/7 = agree completely). We included the variables both separately and as an index (r = 0. 68) in the analyses. Perceived advertising creativity (H5) was measured by asking: â€Å"To what extent do you think that the advertisement you just saw is creative? † (1 – not at all creative/ 7 = very creative). The question was placed before the measures of perceived effort (HI) and brand ability (H2) in one-half of the questionnaires and after the same measures in the other half. This design enables us to test the direction of causalities between the variables (Kenny, 1975). It has been used in previous research on, for xample, the causal effects between slogan evaluations and brand perceptions (Dahlen and Rosengren, 2005). RESULTS Manipulation and confound checks Comparing the groups of more creative versus less creative advertisements. ADVERTISING CREATIVITY M AHERS perceived creativity rated significantly TABLE 1 higher for the group of more creative ad- Effects of Advertising Creativity vertisements (M = 3. 94 versus M = 3. 37, p ; 0. 01), suggesting that our manipulation of advertising creativity was successful. See Table 1. Furthermore, the analyses include testing for differences in function- More Creative Less CreativeAdvertisements, Advertisements, Planned M {SD) M (SD) Comparisons ,. . ,. Manipulation check ality between the groups with respect to †¢ ^ 5 iF brand identification, message identification, comprehension, and advertising and brand attitudes. Only comprehension and advertising attitude differed between conditions, suggesting that the more creative advertisements were more difficult to com, , . , ,. , , , , prehend and were better liked than the less creative advertisements. To rule out competing effects from these variables. they were included as covariates in the subsequent analyses, meaning that these ^ †¢;  ° ifferences were accounted for in the re- r, †¢ ^ †¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Perceived creativity 3,94 (1. 51) 3. 37 (1. 64) p ; 0 . 01 ^^'^^  °^ advertising functionality †¦. ^rapd identification 0. 99(0. 26) iVIessage identification 0. 99(0. 18) Comprehension 4. 96 (1. 71) 0,98(0. 28) 0,99(0,11) 4. 64 (1. 79) n . s. n,s, p < 0 . 01 Advertising attitude  ° †¦.. ^. ‘[^uf?.. ^. ^^. ‘! ^. ‘^. ^.? Confounding variables Brand familiarity ^ ^. ^ . . ,. „ Estimated pnce, difference ,. ^ by product category 4. 08(1. 47) †¢ f^. :^l. ‘ih^^). 3. 81(1. 28) p < 0 . 01 †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ ^. ^^.. {hf! ‘^). â€Å". :! ; 4-,58 (2,23) „„^ +0. 04 4. 44 (2. 23) :28. (1:45) 3. 14 (1. 54) 3,41 (1,75) 2. 96 (1. 58) 2. 78 (1,50) 3. 16 (1. 71) p < 0 . 01 p < 0 . 01 p < 0 . 01 3 . 67(1,71) †¢ †¢ 3. 22 (;i. 26) 4. 25 (1. 19) ^ . . ,^ ,-^^ 3. 44 (1. 51) 3,42(1. 40) †¢ †¢ †¢ 3. -. 04. (1. 37) 4. 00 (1 ,70) ^ ^ , r-^ 3. 12 (1,50) p < 0 . 01 †¢ †¢ P†¦ ; p < 0. 01 † r†¦ 7. Smart 4. 02 (1. 53) 2. 37 (1. 40) p ; 0. 01 significantly greater when consumer- Develop valuable products 5. 02 (1. 25) 3. 35 (1. 55) p ; 0. 01 perceived creativity precedes the other vari- Good problem solver 4. 20 (2. 44) 2. 29 (1. 67) p ; 0. 01 Perceived brand quaiity 5. 48 (1. 16) 4. 02 (1. 0) p ; 0 . 01 DiSCUSSION Waste in advertising creativity matters. Brand interest 4. 62 (1. 51) 2. 56 (1. 41) p ; 0. 01 The results of the present study show that Interesting 4. 50 (1. 62) 2. 39 (1. 43) p ; 0. 01 Purchase intention 4. 73 (1. 71) ;. ! 2. 73 (1. 78) . ; p ; 0. 01 † r:.. 7. ^^^ † â€Å"^^ ^†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ^^^^ ^ ^ * ^ ^^^^- ^^^^^' * ^^† improving the functionality of the adver.. ^ j u .. u tisement and push the message into †¢^ †¦. P^. ‘P^. ‘y^. l^^O':* H2 consumer-perceived creativity and the mar, .. . , j /o^ ^u i†¢ ketmg signals, and (2) the correlations are ables, implying a causal direction from he former onto the latter. H3 H4 Note: F(4, 729) = 80. 40, p < 0. 01, Wilkes' lambda, 0. 53. Consumers' minds, which conventional September 2 0 0 8 JDUROHL OF RDUERTISIIIG RESEHRCH 3 9 9 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MAHERS lished brands that consumers were familiar Regression Coefficients, Test of Mediation by Perceived _ .. Advertismg Creativity s ? Coefficient t-Statistic p< Dependent variable Perceived marketing effort Independent variables .^, ,^ .. v ertising creativity is a p owerful signal when communicating familiar brands a s ,, well. The signaling power of Advertising creativity 0. 18 2. 31 0. 1 Advertising creativity (after inclusion of 0. 02 0. 16 n. s. perceived advertising creativity) Perceived advertising creativity , v ant mamly when communicating with c onsumers that a re u nfamiliar with t he b rand (e. g. , Kirmani a nd R ao, 2000), a d- Standardized gg^g Variables k eting signals argues that they a re r ele- 0 . 33 7. 69 0. 01 advertising creativity Recent research suggests that it is b ecom†^g i ncreasingly harder t o p osition a nd differentiate brands with advertising (e. g.. Ehrenberg, Barnard, Kennedy, a nd Bloom, Dependent variable 2002; Heath a nd N airn, 2005). A s m arkets †¦ ^. ^. ‘[^^}}'. ^^.. ^. ^^! ^^.. ^'! ^'! }]^y.. a re c rowded with similar products, c om- Independent variables m unicating a u nique message or m aking Advertising creativity 0 . 29 2. 56 0. 01 a dvertising that sticks is v irtually impos- Advertising creativity (after inclusion of perceived advertising creativity) 0. 16 0. 99 n. s. 0. 38 5. 76 0. 01 ^^^^^ â„ ¢ ^ ^^^ ‘ ^^ ^ °Ã¢â‚¬ ^^ * ° ‘^†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ^'^^^'^^ ‘ ^^^ † ‘^ â€Å"†Ã¢â‚¬ Ã¢â‚¬ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ^ important than ever to use creativity that really pushes the message ,, . / I T-,  » , , j , . , r,r,r,A^ t hrough (cf. E l-Murad a nd West, 2004). A nother Conclusion would b e t hat creativ-P erceived advertising creativity ^ Note: n. s. = noi significant. ity becomes less a m atter of m essage a nd content generation, a nd m ore a m atter of y/^BLE 5 form a nd s ignaling power. Crowded m ar- Correlation Coefficients, Test of Causality ^^*' ^†'^ ^^†^  °^ differentiation are the very reasons provided for the use of m ar- Perceived Creativity Perceived Creativity k eting signals such a s a dvertising e x-  »Ã¢â‚¬ ¢perceived creativity x „.. „ Perceived effort iVIeasured First -„_ 0 . 35 iVIeasured Last ^„, 0. 24 Difference „„^ p ; 0 . 05 P^-^ived ability Perceived quality 0 . 42 0 . 43 0. 32 0. 4 p ; 0 . 01 p ; 0 . 01 Brand interest 0 . 49 0. 40 p ; 0 . 01 p ense (Kirmani a nd R ao, 2000). Focusing on the execution in itself, rather than the actual message, t he a dvertiser could u se c reativity a s a p owerful marketing signal a s w ell. O † ‘ a nalysis reveals that more versus less advertising creativity pr oduces a s ignal of m arketing effort that is s imilar t o advertising expense. This is g ood news, wisdom holds t o be the major benefit of t aken a s proof of the b rand's smartness, a s t his revelation implies that t he a dver- creativity, a n e xtra degree of c reativity nd ability t o s olve problems a nd de- t iser does n ot n eed t o s pend excessive may send signals about t he a dvertiser that velop valuable products. A s a r esult, con- a mounts of m oney t o s ignal confidence i n rub off on c onsumer perceptions of the s umers became more interested i n the her p roduct. Instead of s pending money brand. I n our e xperiment, more versus brand a nd p erceived it to be of h igher o n b igger advertising spaces or l onger less creative advertising signaled greater quality. T he l atter is a p articularly inter- a nd m ore frequent campaigns (e. g. , Kir- ffort o n the a dvertiser's behalf a nd was e sting result, a s t he s tudy featured estab- mani, 1990, 1997), t he s ame effects m ay 4 0 0 JDUBnflL OF eOUERTISIIlG BESEIIIICH September 2 0 0 8 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MAHERS be attainable by increasing creativity instead. Thus, the present study provides compelling evidence that creativity could be a way to produce greater results per advertising dollar. Creativity seems to have the greater effect through signaling brand ability than through effort. One reason for this is that creativity may fit more logically with what the brand, and advertising in general, is erceived to be about: displaying great solutions in the advertised product category. While high versus low creativity also has a signaling effect through perceived effort, most consumers would probably agree that trying hard is not the true purpose of any advertising or brand. Advertising is not primarily about spending money; advertising is about cleverly presenting the brand, and a desirable goal for any brand should be to deliver a more sophisticated product than the competition (cf. Brown a nd Dacin, 1997). The very (creative) form of the advertising could be a powerful clue to consumers about the brand.Creativity Is not a yes/no The presented numbers reveal that the advertising creativity in our study was not very high (ratings were not above the midpoint of the scale for either the more or the less creative advertisements). Thus, the study does not test the effects of outstandingly creative advertisements. Neither of the advertisements in the study would likely win an award. Still, at these (relative to previous research and to awardcompeting advertisements) low levels of creativity, increases did matter. This result provides evidence that creativity is not only important at an award-winning level, t is important at any level. By focusing too much on award-winning advertising and treating creativity as a yes/no variable, one misses out on all the improvements that can be made and effects that Consumer perceptions of the creativity in an advertisement mediate the adve rtisement's effects on the brand and malee the impact of the manipulated (â€Å"hidden†) creativity much greater. can be attained at more moderate levels. Considering the high risk that is associated with high levels of creativity (e. g. , El-Murad and West, 2003; West, 1999), taking baby steps is both easier and safer han quantum leaps—viewing creativity as a spectrum rather than a high absolute level encourages increases in advertising creativity across all advertising campaigns. Creativity is not a iiidden tool Given the signaling power of advertising creativity, viewing creativity as a hidden tool for advertising professionals is a mistake. Consumer perceptions of the creativity in an advertisement mediate the advertisement's effects on the brand and make the impact of the manipulated (â€Å"hidden†) creativity much greater. This is a powerful case for Kover, James, and Sonner's (1997) call to bring consumers nto the agencies' processes and invite them to pa rtake in the development—and definition—of creative advertising. Whereas copy testing is becoming more common in practice, advertising professionals still interpret the results on behalf of the consumer, deciding whether her responses indicate that the advertisement is creative or not. Not surprisingly, Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan (2006) find that formal testing had no effect on agencies' self-assessed creative output. If advertising professionals both ask the questions and interpret consumers' answers to them, what need is there to actuaUy ask consumers?If agencies had included consumer perceptions of the advertisements' creativity in the testing, Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan's findings would probably have been different. As Kover, James, and Sonner (1997) suggest, taking a consumer perspective offers new ideas and nuances in the creative process and provides more concrete feedback on the creative level of the advertising that would facilitate benchmarking and enhancem ent of the creative output. In enhancing perceived brand ability, the very creative form of advertising could be a way of branding. As suggested in the corporate ability literature, ability could e a powerful positioning in itself (Biehal and Sheinin, 2007; Brown and Dacin, 1997). For brands that have no particular unique feature, becoming increasingly common with the overwhelming number of alternatives available in most markets, ability in itself could be a sustainable source of advantage leveraging consumer expectations and trust in any product the brand introduces. This view is particularly interesting considering the trend toward continuously releasing new products under the same brand (Biehal and Sheinin, 2007). The research on marketing signals focuses mainly on unfamiliar brands (Kirmani and Rao, 2000).Whereas it still needs to be tested, creativity should have important effects on unfamiliar brands as well, as they may benefit more from marketing signals in general. However, the present study shows that high versus low creativity works as a signal for familiar and September 2 0 0 8 JDURHIIL OF BDOERTISIIIG RESEflRCH 4 0 1 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MAHERS Creative advertising does increase consumer interest in ations and Consumer Product Responses. † Journal of Marketing 6 1, 1 (1997): 68-84. the brands, not by communicating a new message, but by COHEN, JACOB, a nd P ATRICI COHEN. Applied ommunicating the same message in another way. Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. H iilsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1983. established brands. Such brands make up the bulk of advertising in major media (Kent, 2002), They need to stay interesting to consumers even when they have nothing new to say (Machleit, Allen, and Madden, 1993), Creative advertising does increase consumer interest in the brands, not by communicating a new message, but by communicating the same message in another way. The present study focuses on a small number of advertis ements for consumer products.We employed only one exposure that was forced on consumers. Our experimental design was a way to test previously uncovered effects of creativity in a controlled setting. This way, we show that advertising creativity may work in different ways than in previous literature and have powerful effects. Whether these effects materialize in a real setting (with noise, less motivated consumers), and for different kinds of products, must be subject to further research, within advertising, PR, and brand communications DAHLEN, MICAEL, a nd SARA ROSENGREN, † Brands have been published in, for example, the Journal ofAffect Slogans Affect Brands? Brand Equity, Com- Advertising Research, the Journal of Advertising, the petitive Interference, and the Brand-Slogan Link. † Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Journal of Brand Management 1 2,3 (2005): 151-64, and the Journal of Brand Management. 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World Relief jurnal - Essay Example Its activity is centered on the material and spiritual support of children refugees and immigrants. World Relief is helping over 4 million people a year and its staff of volunteers is nearly 100,000 (World Relief Website). Career opportunities, offered by World Relief are available at a lot of locations, including the benefit of package of employment status, such as insurance of life and heath, retirement programs and so on. Employment services work collaborate adult refugees in order to help them to find full-time work and provide resources and education to remain employment in their workplace. World Relief is like an intermediator between clients and employers, so one can quickly find employment and become useful for community. Personnel of World Relief are caring about their clients staffing needs and interview them during the process of advocating for placement and job search. World Relief`s aim is to place refugees at work during three months after their arrival. They provide a review of education and work backgrounds and skills to determine tailored plan of service. The organization is trying to build long-term relationships with employers, which leads to the zero cost in job searching of the refugee. In the area of medicine World Relief includes five programs that provide medical equipment and supplies throughout the world for the people with low-income at little cost or in free way. These programs are: Local Shipping Program  (It provides such items as dressings, nutritional supplements. It may give blankets, hygiene and school kits for homeless and the poor. World Medical Relief gives medical support and equipment to local clinics other non-profit health organizations) In 2008 feeding centers of World Relief organization provided people with nourishing food. Thousands of children aged before 5 and their mothers were given corn soya blend and plumpynut (World Relief Website). Others

Air Quality and Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Air Quality and Health - Essay Example Environmental Protection Agency 2006, 2009). Before the start of clean air laws in advanced nations, the fatal impacts of air pollutants,because of fuel burning were obvious throughout numerous severe air effluence incidents. It turned out to be clear to the civic that huge numbers of people deceased and several were fell sick by way of dust and sulphur dioxide, the ‘Great Smog’ incident in 1952 (Davis 2002, Bell 2001). The incident was occurred because of combustion of coal, petroleum fuels and gas in blend with stagnant climate environments. The awfully high levels of contamination affected huge and noticeable upturns in the number of day-to-day demises and sicknesses due to lung and cardiac ailment, obvious regardless of the absence of refined statistical analyses. These episodes created consciousness that free burning of fossil fuels in and near metropolises was injurious to civic well-being. Ultimately, state, local and, centralized rules and guidelines for instance ‘The Clean Air Act’ initiated in monitoring pollution from burning of fossil fuels (Stevens, ND). Air Quality Air effluence can have a grave consequence on publics’ wellbeing. ... Air pollution as well has undesirable influences on the atmosphere, together with straight impacts of contaminants on flora, andsecondarily, by properties on the acid and nutrient status of soils and waters. The UK Government’s main goal is to make certain that all people must have right to use open air devoid of substantial menace to the well-being, everywhere this is financially and technically feasible. (DEFRA,2007) The AQI (Air Quality Index) is an index used for to assess daily air quality. It gives an idea how fresh or contaminated the air is, and what related health impacts might be an alarm for the concerned. The AQI emphases on health impacts one might experience in a period of time after exposing to contaminated air. United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) analyses the AQI for five most important air contaminants regulated by the Clean Air Act: ground-level ozone, particle matter, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. For all of these co ntaminants, EPA has given national air quality standards to safeguard civic wellbeing. Consider the AQI as a gauge that calibrated from 0 to 500. If the AQI value is higher, the greater is the level of air contamination and the greater is the health disquiet. For instance, an AQI value of 50 signifies good air quality with no risk to civic wellbeing, whereas an AQI value over 300 signifies harmful air quality. An AQI value of 100 normally agrees to the national air quality standard for the contaminant that the level set by EPA to protect community wellbeing. AQI values under 100 are normally considered as acceptable and when AQI values are higher than 100, air quality is harmful for some delicate clusters of persons, and then for all people as AQI values get more and higher (EPA, 2003).

Course Project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Course Project - Assignment Example rm, such as the percentage of incongruence, specificity, and sensitivity between self-reported cancer-screening and medical record documentation among African American women. Descriptive research only examines variables in natural environments and does not include researcher-designed treatments or interventions. In addition, a descriptive research design aims to provide a picture of the situation by gaining more information about the characteristics of a particular field of study; thus, descriptive designs may be used in theory development, problem identification, and justification in current practice (Burns & Grove, 2009, 236). On the other hand, quantitative research designs are crafted to determine the relationship of variables in a population. Combining the two research designs, a quantitative descriptive research design establishes only associations between variables and not causality. The quantitative descriptive research design is appropriate to answer the research question because the descriptive design of the study described the current situation by using statistics to determine rates of participation in cancer screening among patients’ self-reported screening or medical records without treatment or intervention whereas, quantitative design establishes only association between self-reported cancer screening and medical record documentation. Powe, B.D. & Cooper, D.L. (2008). Self-Reported Cancer Screening Rates versus Medical Record Documentation: Incongruence, Specificity, and Sensitivity for African American Women. Oncology Nursing Forum, 35(2):

Module 3 Principles of Human Resources using Performance Appraisals Essay

Module 3 Principles of Human Resources using Performance Appraisals - Essay Example Appraisals also identify the below-par performers who then may be subjected to counseling or punitive action such as pay cuts, demotions or in the extreme case dismissal or decreases in pay. The necessity of performance appraisals is a debated issue. While on one hand a number of authors feel that it is one aspect of corporate organizations that creates significant hindrance to effective management of human resources (Derven, 1990), authors like Lawrie (1990) feel it to be indespensible and possibly one of the most crucial aspects of organizational management. The fundamental reason behind opinions spread over both ends of the spectrum is that these are based upon observations about successes and failures of appraisals in engendering warranted results. I believe that it is not the action of evaluating employees through appraisals but rather the manner in which these are administered that leads to such different results. The necessity of performance appraisals is intricately tied to the objectives and policies of the organization. For organizations that believe in generating employee loyalty and try and minimize employee turnovers performance appraisals can play a very important role. Further, appraisals offer the opportunity to focusing on activities and objectives, to locate and cure problems found to be existing, and thereby to provide encouragement for better performances in future. This, effectively done can thus improve the aggregative performance of the whole organization. The appraisals also embody the opportunity mutual recognition and agreement of individual training and development needs. Discussion of any workers performance can beyond argument establish lack or abundance of skills which otherwise in a generic voting situation or centralized meeting situation cannot become clear. So, performance appraisals can definitely establish the necessity of training as well as the

Putting The Bully In His Place. Causes, Consequences and Possible Term Paper

Putting The Bully In His Place. Causes, Consequences and Possible Solutions to Bullying - Term Paper Example Bullying involves the infliction of harm on a less powerful person by a more powerful individual or group by way of physical, verbal or psychological means. It is a growing problem in schools that threaten to cause long-term negative effects that victims and bullies may be burdened with all their lives (Hawker & Boulton, 2000). This paper endeavors to study the causes, consequences and possible interventions for bullying behaviors in schools. It is the researcher’s attempt to contribute solutions to this common issue in schools that is shared by many, but not addressed enough, hence the bullying cycle continues. Definition of Bullying Olweus (cited in Nansel, Haynie & Simons-Morton, 2003) defines bullying as aggressive peer-to-peer behavior with three conditions, namely: an intention to harm or disturb the victim; the aggression is done repeatedly and there is an imbalance of power between the bully and the victim. Ayenibiowo & Akinbode (2011) identified three forms of bullying as physical, verbal and psychological aggression. Physical bullying inflicting bodily harm on someone and may involve hitting, kicking, spitting, pushing, taking personal things, etc. Verbal bullying employs the use of mean words and tone of voice to express aggression and may entail taunting, teasing, name calling, threatening, criticizing, humiliating, etc.etc. Finally, psychological bullying is intentionally causing anxiety, stress and fear in a victim to make him or her emotionally unstable and may involve spreading rumors, destroying social relationships, intimidating, making one a target of jokes, etc. Lyznicki et al (2004) claim tha t bullying occurs usually in school. With boys, the bullying is mostly physical and verbal while with girls, relational bullying is usually resorted to and this is more subtle and more difficult to detect. Causes of Bullying Anyone can be a victim especially if he or she is not assertive enough to protect him/herself. However, the bully is the one responsible for inflicting harm, so the problem usually lies with him. There are many causes of bullying behavior. One is frustration at one’s situation. The bully may have learning disabilities that he is having a difficulty coping with while being expected to perform at a required level in school (Kaukiainen, Salmivalli, et al. (2002). Consistently getting poor grades and disappointing his parents may be disheartening and one way he or she expresses such disappointment is through bullying others. The bully may also be abused or neglected at home and needs a victim to express anger and pour out his or her frustrations upon. Another cause may be that the bully is being bullied himself and needs someone to bully around just to maintain the status quo (Esplage, Holt & Henkel, 2003). This way, he or she may feel that power has been regained even though in reality, he or she still feels powerless with the person who bullies him or her. The child may also have a poor or no role model who can guide him to appropriate behavior (Fekkes, Pijpers & Verloove-Vanhorick, 2005). The bullying behavior may also have been learnt from someone who has been a bad influence to him (Turner, 1991). Although in theory, hurting others is known to be an inappropriate but in practice he or she sees people of authority practicing bullying, he or she then imitates it in his or her own life. Finally, the bully may have a conduct disorder which is the precursor to antisocial, psychopathic or personality disorder (Bullying in Schools, n.d.). Ayenibiowo & Akinbode (2011) explain one theory that stimulates

PACKAGING FUNCTIONS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

PACKAGING FUNCTIONS - Essay Example Products are at high risk of these damages when they are transported from place to place and are subjected to climate or temperature change. Products such as fruits require a more rigid packaging such as a laminated container so its freshness is preserved. Second, a good packaging puts the product together and avoids it from spilling. This function of packaging is more directed to the protection of the item itself such as in preserving its shape & size. Also, packaging protects a product from being confused with another. This is very important and useful especially because it differentiates one brand from another, carries the description of what a product is and includes the nutritional facts. Though most people would not realize the importance of which, having a packaging with poor labeling can cause major repercussions especially for consumers with health concerns/issues (The Functions of Packaging,

Undertake project work Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Undertake project work - Assignment Example This will exhibit whether the product is a success or a failure within the market. The period for the project will be three months. a period in which the project will research on the market viability, strengths as well as weakness of the product, inclusive of the consumer reception of the new brand within the Indian market. The project follows the right standards of ethics in research. This means that it will consider all the required steps in conducting a research project, such as freedom of choice by participants, respecting the privacy and choice of participants, as well as giving accurate data for use in the analysis phase of the project. The project requires both financial and intellectual assets in order to undertake appropriately. this includes an experienced team of researchers, project managers, marketing professionals, market analysts, as well as adequate financial resources to undertake the entire project work appropriately. This includes money for the research, money for transport, and money to carry out the various analyses necessary to complete the research. Please identify the clients, employees or team responsible for the projects. Here students should outline each person or team’s responsibilities in order to complete the project. The team’s responsibilities should be aligned with the desired outcomes in the project. You may use the table below: The young ones are equally an important market segment of the company. As such, this market segment needs particular attention in order identify its tastes and preferences, trends, as well as other likes that contribute largely to market viability and growth. The teenagers are the most users of soft drinks, especially owing to their fast transformation from children to adulthood. This is the point when many young ones transform in all ways, especially