Cloudstreet Essay

How is your personal interpretation of Cloudstreet governed by its treatment of enduring values? Cloudstreet, a sprawling saga composed by Tim Winton, explores the enduring values of reconciliation, hope and the inevitable unity of family that forms the basis for our existence. Through the overarching techniques of context and the use of the Australian vernacular, Winton presents his nostalgia for the traditional Australian life, as well as encouraging the responder to consider universal issues which lie at the core of human experience, such as the need to treat others equally. By passing the Pickles and the Lambs through a series of trials and tribulations, in accordance with the strength of sagaic novels, Winton examines important ideas and philosophies about humankind. Through the examination of pivotal moments within the text, such as Fish’s near drowning in the river, the responder is able to gain their interpretation of the book and its treatment of the universal values of reconciliation, hope and family unity. Cloudstreet’s treatment of the theme of reconciliation highlights the need for people to find reconciliation within their existences, hence showing individual reconciliation with the forces of existence to be a central thematic concern. In Cloudstreet, this idea is expressed through Sam’s meeting with the blackfella after he returns from voting. While Sam implements classic Australian colloquialisms in his complaints about â€Å"some rich bastard†, he simultaneously plots to â€Å"sell the house for some real money†. This use of irony highlights Sam’s (symbolising the typical white man) ignorance of the fortune which he holds and which he considers to be mainstream. As a result, Sam is portrayed as a representative of white ignorance, and while he seems to be an average Australian, Winton portrays him to be a symptom of what is wrong with Australia as, while Sam is able to sense the â€Å"otherworldliness† of the blackfella, he perseveres with his callous plans to exploit home and to be disconnected from his spiritual existence. This idea is further exemplified through Sam’s gesture of offering a cigarette to the blackfella. The symbolism in this image presents Sam as the epitome of all that the class that he represents is able to provide. Reconciliation provides the basis for the emergent and disturbing spirituality of the house. The origins of the horror and ominous spirituality that exudes from the house lies in the misguided and ignorant need to socialise Aboriginals, evidenced in the horrendous treatment of the Aboriginal girls in the house that emerges from this ignorant misunderstanding. Hence, through the metaphor of Sam, Winton comments upon contemporary social and political problems and particularly the culture of denial within Australian culture at the time. This idea of the need for reconciliation is also expressed through the idea of family. The importance of family is another consistent theme throughout the novel. In Debts, Winton explores the instinctive force that drives members of a family to protect one another, despite all previous conflict. This is evidenced through Lester and Quick’s feelings of responsibility for Fish, which, particularly in the case of Quick, is driven by the guilt of Fish’s near drowning. As Lester says, â€Å" We owe him things†¦don’t forget Fish†¦don’t pretend to Fish. † The desperate, beseeching tone represents his instinctive desire to help Fish, in order to find reconciliation within himself. This idea is further expressed in â€Å"Ghostly sensations†, where Rose supports Sam during his desperate attempt at suicide. Despite Rose’s feelings towards her father’s burden on the family, which Sam himself recongises, â€Å"I’m a weak stupid bastard. † Rose assumes responsibility and protects her father. This is expressed through the motherly image of â€Å"She grabbed his head and pulled it to her breast. † The characters demonstrate the almost primeval urge that drives family members to protect one another, effectively communicated through Winton’s use of language. Thus, Winton shows his nostalgia for earlier times, when these values were at the core of Australian society. The theme of hope in Cloudstreet is expressed primarily through the Pickles’ stringent belief in the presence of the â€Å"shifty shadow†. The motif of the shifty shadow runs throughout the novel, presenting itself as a satirisation of the ideas of conventional religion and its affiliated dogma, and establishes a means by which characters such as Sam and Rose justify the unfathomable forces which govern their lives. The imagery of the â€Å"spinning knife†, which is used to decide whether the Lambs will start a shop or who is washing up, presents the idea that, for these characters, religion is more significant as a social context than as any element of a resolution of faith. The dislocation that the Pickles and the Lambs feel from the idea of God echoes Winton’s view that the contemporary working class could not relate to Christian ideals because of their own lack of fortune. Sam’s own nterpretation of the shifty shadow reflects pagan views of the world, in that he maintains a respect for rituals that is fundamental to all societies. â€Å"You stay right there till the shadow’s fallen across whoever’s lucky or unlucky enough, and then when it’s all over, you go out and get on with your business. † The colloquial tone of this sentence emphasises to the responder that, despite his working class background, there are ritualistic ideas bred into him and which he will not contravene. As such, Cloudstreet’s treatment of the theme of the shifty shadow examines spirituality as well as the unknowable. Cloudstreet’s treatment of the values of individual reconciliation, the importance of family and hope reflects its contextual situation, that of late 20th century Australia. Moreover, it reflects Winton’s desperate longing for an era of post war Australia. Through a close examination of the text, the responder gains insight into the central and enduring values of Winton’s society.

Boys don’t cry versus the teena brandon story Essay

I have chosen to write about the difference between fact and fiction between a documentary and a docudrama. Between how important getting information out to the public and what sells to the viewing public for entertainment. I would like to state that I feel quite fortunate that I watched the documentary, â€Å"The Teena Brandon Story†, first then I watched the movie, â€Å"Boys Don’t Cry†. I had viewed the movie years ago; I had heard that this movie was a true story based on fact from the documentary. In my second viewing from an analytical standpoint, let me just say I was quite floored about how could they call, â€Å"Boys Don’t Cry† a docudrama when there were so many important facts that were excluded from this film. Both film and documentary did receive Academy Awards. â€Å"The Teena Brandon Story,† is a documentary about Brandon Teena (aka Teena Ray Brandon), a transgendered person, who was murdered along with Lisa Lambert and Phillip Devine in 1993 in Falls City, Nebraska. The story is told through interviews with the people who loved and hated Brandon for his difference. Recorded interrogation and trial transcripts, all of which showed that Brandon’s girlfriends thought he was a male. All talked about how he was the best boyfriend and so in tune with their feelings and so giving. Brandon Teena’s police tape, photographs, and file film footage. â€Å"Boys Don’t Cry†, is a film based on actual events. Brandon Teena is the popular new guy in a tiny Nebraska town called Falls City. He hangs out with the guys, drinking, cussing, bumper surfing, and becomes quite the ladies’ man in town. He has been warned by his cousin that â€Å"they† do not play like that down there. Brandon ignores the warning and becomes one of the guys and dating the local hometown beauty. He has forgotten to mention that he is wanted in his hometown of Lincoln for forgery, grand theft auto, stealing and most importantly that Brandon Teena was actually a born a woman named Teena Ray Brandon. When his friends find out they feel betrayed and lash out violently with murder. Trauma is the focus of â€Å"Boys Don’t Cry† and community is the focus of â€Å"The Teena Brandon Story†. The differences stems from narrative and documentary. Narrative creates a story around a character while a documentary creates an argument around a historical incident. Both films use the same material and they were released a year apart, although the character portrayal is negative in both films the narrative was sued for slander. The documentary displayed Lana Tisdel as white trash and in the film she was portrayed as white trash. The family sued the filmmakers and I believe why is because the documentary showed the actual Lisa Tisdel in her interviews and the filmmakers were sued because they captured her likeness maybe because it showed her as a druggie and alcoholic. â€Å"Boys Don’t Cry† and â€Å"The Teena Brandon Story† made sure to refer to Teena Brandon as Brandon and to call her â€Å"him† they did not follow the wishes of his mother and call him â€Å"she†. The suspicion that they were lesbians was not okay in the documentary and the film; it seems that they were more okay with her having a sexual identity crisis. Both pieces expose a core of homophobia among not only the killers but Brandon himself he insist that he is not a â€Å"dyke†. There was an attitude that she is going to get a sex change operation and that was â€Å"okay,† for some reason. One of â€Å"Boys Don’t Cry† biggest copycat moments of the documentary is the opening scene of the movie begins with the start of a long dark and lonesome road and flashing lights with a single line going down the pavement and â€Å"The Teena Brandon Story† begins the same way. Brandon Teena was murdered by John Lotter and Tom Nissen. When they found out that Brandon was actually a girl passing as a boy and dating their good friend Lana Tisdel the men became and enraged and killed her. The documentary tells the events of Brandon Teena leaving Lincoln, Nebraska and going to Falls City, Nebraska since people did not know him there. Too many people in his hometown started finding out that he was a girl and problems were arising more frequently. The documentary gave you a reason and a time frame of why and when Brandon left Lincoln and went to Falls City. The movie did this weird transition and maybe the only reason why I noticed it was because it was all so fresh in my mind and I was looking for differences but, â€Å"Boys Don’t Cry† did the transition of when Brandon went to Humboldt by showing him, I guess in the bar where Candace, also known as Lisa Lambert worked as a bartender. A barroom brawl breaks out and in to help him fight is John Lotter and that is how the friendship of him along with Tom Nissen began. They showed Brandon ending up in Falls City because John Lotter suggested they go to a party which Candace points out is seventy miles away. This is where he meets Lana Tisdel, the love of his life. The movie gave you the impression that Brandon was going to return to Lincoln until everyone in Falls City, Nebraska was accepting of him and did not know his secret. The movie gave off a feeling of a love story in a sense with certain circumstances gone bad, kind of like a Romeo and Juliet spin off rather than about someone passing for a man and getting into trouble all the time back home for passing as a man. In â€Å"The Teena Brandon Story†, all of the real names were used in the documentary and the parents gave permission and also gave testimony as well. In â€Å"Boys Don’t Cry†, the names were all used except for the female victim Lisa Lambert and her son. Their names were changed to Candace and Tanner, which poses the question of rights in the docudrama. This crime was actually a triple homicide not a double as they so blatantly portrayed in the movie. The people that were murdered were Brandon Teena, Lisa Lambert and Phillip Devine. Phillip Devine was a young black guy that was visiting Lisa Lambert at the time. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. In my opinion, they did not see the relevance of mentioning the third murdered victim in this horrific incident. I feel that it was a cheap rip off in my eyes.

Information Flow

There are many elements that aid an organization in being successful, however one of the key elements is Information flow. In my Journal Entry I will be describing the levels of communication, both good and bad, that are found within Johnson Matthey, my current employer. I will discuss the three main managerial approaches within my company that I have observed, and the three potential communication barriers as well. The intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, organizational and intercultural levels of communications are all on display amongst the coworkers of Johnson Matthey.There are multiple levels within the headquarters, located in Wayne, PA. They are all providing the same product for the Oil and Gas Industry. Each level contains up to 45 employees depending on the department. Interpersonal communication is continuously conducted within each group so that nothing ever falls between the cracks. Individuals are always communicating with themselves due to the constant changes in mater ials needed, which requires them to be able to adapt to change quickly. The workforce here is largely diverse, mostly all men with degrees in The Sciences, but various backgrounds and educational levels.We all work in groups, each department is tied to the next, therefore requiring tight nit and close communication. Every department is essentially like its own â€Å"clique†, everyone talks about the next department, and it’s kind of like lunch time in the cafeteria during high school. Depending on your department you can be looked at as a friend or an enemy, sadly in my line of work, it’s very hard to find people who support you and back you up unless they are in your department. The woman here are very jealous of each other, they don’t like to be outshined, especially by newbies or those of us who are younger.This kind of behavior can put a major dent on communication skills. Mostly to spite someone, but that’s still not a responsible way to handl e any situation. Information travels generally in one direction from our customer (various Oil and Gas clients) to us. There are occasions when we have a little say so in the actual product but for the most part it is a one-sided show. We have our Regional Manager Andrew, our Offshore Manager Jim and our Operations Manager Roy. The way it starts is, the job comes into Andy, he determines if it is an Onshore or Offshore project.If it is determined to be offshore, it goes to Jim, he works out the schematics of personnel with Chris and myself. Any budget questions, equipment needs etc. have to be cleared by me and then run over by Roy for final approval. The channel used is generally email from the client to one of the site managers. The feedback comes once the work is complete and as long as we get a top notch report, then we get a good â€Å"pat on the back† from upper management, and we move on to the next project. The functions of Y Hierarchy of managerial communications do exist within this organization.Our manager is continuously creating and encouraging a wonderful work environment and providing opportunities for employees to take the initiative and self-direction. Management is always looking for new ways for employees to make significant contributions within the organization. Behavioral, empowerment, and contingency are the three managerial communication approaches that I have observed within the organization that I currently work for. Empowerment is the distribution or entrustment of power or authority to his or hers subordinates within an organization.Generally used when upper management is out of work for certain amount of time. Empowerment also encourages the employees to get more involved with the organization. The contingency approach is seen a lot in our office. Our Operations Manager knows that there is more than one way to get an â€Å"A+† on our work, and whichever way produces the best result with the least amount of money and ti me spent, is generally the path that is taken. This is probably the approach seen mostly around the Johnson Matthey organization because of the results that are produced.Behavioral approach comes with trust and one’s individual character. Managers have been seen trusting and respecting the employees more now than ever due the production that each department has put out for our clients. Personality, emotional, and physical are the three potential barriers to effective communication within not just Johnson Matthey, but most organizations. Everyone here has their own personality and that can sometimes create an issue throughout the business day. Individuals are loaded with many traits that create personal attitudes, approaches, angles,quirks and different views on the world, and how to handle various situations. There are many occasions in which this trait has stalled communication between two individuals and in some case hurt the overall job being done. Emotional barriers can b y far be the worst thing out there, in terms of communication in a company. There are many individuals in my organization that let things go straight to their heads and forget that we are at the workplace. Emotions should not be brought to work with you at all, you should be able to brush things off and move on with the job.Especially personal conflicts and personal issues. Your office and your coworkers are not the place to be dealing with those kinds of things. Managers are often seen using a softer touch to get through to the individuals with emotional issues. Physical barriers are one of the most common around my office though. There are many occasions that we are working with a wall between co-workers and with communication being the key to our success problem will generally arise on occasions. We have made complaints on many occasions with the same results â€Å"deal with it†.

Port Maritime Legislation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Port Maritime Legislation - Assignment Example Majorly the Smart Port Security Legislation has in place a strategic arrangement that boosts the international supply chain security through partnerships in fighting vices such as terrorism. The legislation also has modalities for recognizing the shipper programs of other nations that are trusted, while fostering its main objective of enhancing the security of supply chain. This enhancement of security is done through identification of security gaps within the supply chain and making them more secure in the whole supply chain beginning from the manufacturing process to the supplies stage (Klein, 2011). The Safe Port Act is an amendment of the 2002 Homeland security act for the establishment of a domestic office for nuclear detection within the homeland security department. The safe port legislation has preconditions for putting in place standards and equipment for scanning and radiating all the containers getting into the United States ports. This legislation specifies protocols to follow for responding to emergencies, which involves cooperation across the private sector, federal, local and state administrations. With this legislation, there is stipulation for inspecting containers christened â€Å"high risk† before they can arrive into the United States. Apart from those provisions, the legislation reinforces custom trade partnerships especially that work towards mitigating terrorist activities. According to Klein (2011), the Small vessel Security strategy attends to the risk that of smuggling of mass destruction weapons or terrorists into America. Other risks it attends to include the possibility of the small weapons being used as platforms for launching weapons either directly or indirectly though the water ways. Apart from addressing these threats, it gives descriptions of the small vessels and their suitable operating environments. The objectives of this

Chocolate's Bittersweet Economy Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Chocolate's Bittersweet Economy - Case Study Example Within international perspectives wherein trans-national organizations are at work, the situation may become more difficult as not directly controlling the stakes in various countries or rather at various steps of supply chain absolve most of the international organizations from their true responsibilities and accountabilities. This case study discusses some of the issues and concerns at child labor and how different stakeholders including large international importers of cocoa from Ivory Coast. The relative ethical considerations of each stakeholder and how they are contributing towards achieving the intended objectives of reducing or rather abolishing child labor from Cocoa fields is also discussed at great length. Issues discussed in the case study are diversified in nature and focus on multiple issues to provide a comprehensive understanding of the ethical issues surrounding the cocoa trade in Ivory Coast. Every government has the responsibility and moral obligation to provide basic necessities including clean water, health, education as well as safety of its citizens. The moral obligations of the government therefore require that it must act in a way which can ensure that every citizen has the access to basic and fundamental necessities. Government is a stakeholder in this case because it has to ensure that the children working in the forms are getting proper education as well as access to health. Further, government is also obliged to act on the international legislations barring child labor into the cocoa fields. It is also obligatory for the government to ensure that the taxes that it collects from the cocoa producers are spent on the development of physical infrastructure as well as other facilities such as building schools so that children can go to school besides a general improvement in the standards of living happens. Local suppliers serve as the middle men in this whole cycle and they are the entities which basically coordinate with the

Del inc Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Del inc - Research Paper Example Conclusion 8 12. References 9 Graph 1 1 table 1 6 1.1 Introduction Dell Inc. is a United States based multinational firm that manufactures and develops computers and its associated products and services. It is the fastest growing computer companies in the world. Its growth strategy includes both acquisitions and increases its customers. Its most prominent mergers have been with Alienware and Perot Systems. Dell is known for its supply chain management and online sales where it focused on â€Å"configure to order† strategy where every product was customized (Fuller, 2012). It initially worked but as the demand became global the strategy was just too hard to keep up. Customers became smarter and wanted to use the products before buying which weakened Dell’s online selling strategy (Eden, 2012). Graph 1. Dell’s market share in U.S. and Worldwide (in Q1 2009) compared to other top PC makers http://www.casestudyinc.com/dell-supply-chain-case-study According to Atikan (2012), from 1997-2004 was an era of growth for the firm where the firm got a number one position for customer services and reliance. In 2002 the firm expanded its product portfolio to include televisions and printers etc. it also acquired Converge Net Technologies. In 2004, with the change in management, Dell’s ties with Microsoft and Intel deteriorated and in 2005 Dell lost 25% of its shares. With the market now stretching across the globe, Dell could not maintain its customer services nor manufacture customized products. Moreover, the prices per product production reduced cutting down on Dell’s profits. Adding to it Dell spent less on its R&D, which retarded its future growth prospects. The firm undertook many acquisitions as an attempt to rise again with its latest acquisition in September 2012 of Quest Software. Today it has gained strength by transforming into an IT solution provider and is successful in the Virtual Era (Fuller, 2012). 2 Application of OM in Dell ’s workplace Operational management is primarily how Dell manages its quality, supply chain, maintenance, global locations and human resources. 2.1 Quality Dell was always known for its quality products however, as the market expanded globally, the firm had increasing difficulty to produce customised products and thus quality also suffered leading to complaining customers and a slow customer care. Every market has a different requirement and to cater to that it became difficult for the firm. This was also adding to the cost where Dells products were marked higher than the market price (Chen and Press, 2012). 2.2 Supply chain at Dell The firm has stringent legal frames that it follows and ensures that its suppliers follow that too. Maintaining that has enabled Dell to reached the global markets as the quality is maintained and at the same time the suppliers realise the standards they need to maintain if they intend to work with Dell. 2.3 Maintenance management Dell trains and develops its employees continuously and has highly skilled employees because the products are customised and thus require specific skills to follow this strategy. As per Atikan (2012), Dell aims to converge its technology that will simplify operation and make performance better simultaneously reducing operational costs. Dell claims to have a holistic approach that helps its customers with managing their virtual and physical IT needs thereby achieving their objectives. 2.4 Global management Dell’

Management Accounting and the Modern Business Enviroment Essay

Management Accounting and the Modern Business Enviroment - Essay Example It ensures the appropriate use of and accountability for an organization's resources. Management accounting also comprises the responsibility for the preparation of financial reports for the non-management groups such as regulatory agencies and tax authorities. Simply stated, management accounting is the accounting for the planning, control, and decision-making activities of an organization." (Shim & Siegel, pg 1, 1998) Management accounting presents the executive professionals with the foundation in making educated business decisions that would allow them to be superiorly equipped in their management and be in command of functions. In contrast to financial accountancy information (which, for public companies, is public information), management accounting information is used within an organization (typically for decision-making) and it is generally classified and accessible by a select few. Its foremost focus is on the formulation of strategies, planning and assembly of business activities and the optimal exploitation of resources. The aspects of decision making, protection of assets and the assistance in making of financial reports are also amongst the fundamental principles working behind the concept of management accounting. The accounting practitioners and mentors of the late 1980s became conscious of the drastic transformation of the fundamentals of global business environment. This led them to diligently work in the development of novel skills and techniques that could cater the needs of the rapidly varying business environment. This transformation of business methodologies is known as the transition from the 'traditional' to the highly developed and sophisticated business technologies. "The business environment in recent years has been characterized by increasing competition and a relentless drive for continuous improvement. Several approaches have been developed to assist organizations in meeting these challenges, including just-in-time (JIT), total quality management (TQM), process reengineering, and the theory of constraints (TOC)." (Garrison and Noreen, 1999) TQM engross focusing on the client, and it utilizes methodical problem solving using teams made up of front-line personnel. Benchmarking and the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle constitute the particular TQM tools. Any internal strife in the organization is shunned due to the emphasis on teamwork, a focus on the client, and facts. On the other hand, Process Reengineering revolves around the entire restructuring of a business procedure so that non-value-added activities are eradicated and prospects for blunders are truncated to a minimum. It relies more on outside experts than TQM and is thus more prone to be promulgated by top management. Where as, the theory of constraints, highlights the significance of administering the organization's limitations. (Garrison and Noreen, 1999) Just-In-Time (JIT) Manufacturing Just-In-time manufacturing or JIT originated in Japan and has been in practice in the country since the early 1970's. It was developed and improved by Taiichi Ohno of Toyota, who is now acclaimed to be the pioneer of the concept of JIT. "The idea was developed by Taiichi Ohno as a procedure to meet client demands with the least possible delays. JIT was therefore, initially, principally used to manufacture goods so that client orders

Shall we dance Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Shall we dance - Case Study Example The ballroom dancing mostly targets the women who have a great interest and money to spend on dancing classes. The two business partners will offer global dance brands in an effort to promote the company Dance space into an excellent company (Griffin 584). The business idea has been implemented, and Tang starts to give the dance lessons and selling the video in various stores across Canada and Britain. The two have targeted about three websites for customers to mingle as well as download the earlier mentioned video with different varieties of dance videos (Griffin 584). However, the only limitation happens to capital since the company requires about 1.4 million dollars. The two have made an impression on Tim Draper who is an investor in various internet programs. The business partners hire a coach in preparation to meet Tim Draper but the coach advice them not to meet Tim since they do not have a well defined sales pitch (Griffin 584). The two had been now concentrated on the investm ents such that they forgot to come up with a solid sales pitch. On the meeting day, they give a performance and then discuss the prospects of the company. The two experts offer their arguments on the business preparation. Robert Herjavec disagrees with Beverly and Tang’s ideas and insists they should also target the young generation as well as the boomers are have no technologically awareness and using the websites cannot work (Griffin 584). Conversely, KO supports the ideas by the two but also insists that Beverly and Tang should revamp their language and that they should form different segments for different age groups (Griffin 584). Being a new company based on the interests of a given demographic group, the company owners need to analyze the external and internal S.W.O.T to come up effectively with a solid sales pitch. The company owners

Analysis of the poem The Jabberwocky Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analysis of the poem The Jabberwocky - Essay Example A closer look at the first two sentences reveals that the words are not orderly organized making readers to question their originality as they are far strange from the ordinary world. Going down to line six, the poet is making an allusion of an enemy whose identity is known by using illusion as a style â€Å"other than equipped with rather nasty jaws and claws†. In line six of the poem, the poet goes further to give an explanation of the features of the monsters he is alluding about giving the audience a clue that whatever he is describing is not from this ordinary world. Secondly, the poet uses sound and word play to give more meaning to his poem. An example is that in line one, the poet uses a word like portmante ua which is derived from two words which contributes in giving the word force and meaning when being read by the audience. In line twenty three, the poet uses sound play to show the expression of joy. An example is the use of frabjous instead of fabulous. The conflict arising from the poem is that between good and evil. This is presented by the hero and the jabberwork who is considered the evil in the poem. An analysis into the two themes shows that conflict only arises when the two, hero and jabberwork meets. Therefore, the poem brings out the element of an ordinary man standing against a beast which is not known to this world. Surprisingly, the conflict manifest itself as the hero, human being is forced to fight with something which lacks sense in the world as it is an imaginary creature created in the mind of the poet. The theme of violence is also present in the poem because towards its climax. In the second stanza, its sets up the theme as the protagonist of the poem prepare to face the unknown beast into the wild. This when interpreted simply means that the protagonist was going to start a conflict between him and beast. Moreover, we notice that the hero at the end manages to

LAW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

LAW - Essay Example It is not more than 100 words and focuses solely on defining the reader what the writer is going to talk about. ADR is one of the subjects of discussion, and the writer starts which the explanation of ADR which also includes the definition of the same. After having explained the concept, the writer further dwells into the understanding and the functioning of ADR. He argues the advantages and the disadvantages of ADR. It also involves the study of different types of ADR and their functions with regard to the settlement of the disputes. The writer has given a brief explanation of each and every type of ADR and their different approached towards the settlement of disputes. The writer in the third structure talks about Litigation which is also known as Court Trial. Over here he defines and explains what we really mean by Court trial and how it functions. After having discussed the brief functions of Court Trial, the writer then dwells on the advantages and the disadvantages of Court Tria l. The writer goes deep into the advantages and disadvantages of Court Trial and concludes with the same.Question 2 Question 2 Court Trial and ADR Introduction In Halsey v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust, the Court has the following observation: â€Å"All members of the legal profession who conduct litigation should now consider with their clients whether disputes are suitable for ADR†.... Despite a lot of negativity having been spread about ADR in recent years, the fact remains that ADR is now the most sought after mode of settling disputes and due to its simplicity it has become the major force to reckon with for lawyers. It was held in the case of Halsey v Milton Keynes the following: â€Å"the courts will not refuse costs to a successful party unless it was shown that the successful party acted unreasonably in refusing to agree to ADR. The normal order of costs made to the winning party (costs follow the event – crudely stated â€Å"the winner takes all†) would not apply if the successful party acted unreasonably.† Understanding the point of view given in the above case, it can be inferred that the Courts made it clear that it would not obligatory on the part of the parties to opt for Arbitration; however, in the same proposition Courts do feel that the parties should try their utmost best to opt for ADR in settling the disputes. ADR can be div ided into two types. The first form of ADR is resolving and settling disputes outside the official judicial mechanisms. The second form of ADR is to resolve and settle disputes informal to official judicial mechanisms. It involves the informal tribunals and informal mediation processes as well as formal tribunals and formal mediation processes. Let us discuss the forms of ADR before we move further. ADR consists of the following means: a) Arbitration b) Mediation c) Conciliation d) Negotiation All these forms of ADR are extremely popular within the legal profession. Arbitration is the form of settlement of disputes where the matter is given to an independent party

Product realisation & materials Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Product realisation & materials - Assignment Example The most widely used types of springs around the globe are usually the helical compression springs. It can be applied in various practical areas. Due to this fact, appropriate and highly valued designs should be put into dire considerations in due course of the manufacturing process. The basic factors that should be duly looked at include spring’s stability, spring relaxation, and surge in spring, strain energy, fatigue loading and other basic design processes. Laser melting  refers to an  additive manufacturing  process that utilizes 3D  CAD data as the ultimate source of digital information as well as the energy that results in form of high-powered laser beams; towards creation of 3-dimensional metal segments through fusing together of fine  metal particles  (MOHAMED A.E. SALEH and ADHAM E. RAGAB, 2013). The manufacturing process usually starts by first slicing the  file data into a number of layers that often revolves between twenty to a hundred micrometres in terms of thickness, hence establishing a 2D image for each layer (MOHAMED A.E. SALEH and ADHAM E. RAGAB, 2013).The file is then put into a package of file preparation software that hence assigns values, parameters and supports that will allow for file interpretation and built by various types of manufacturing machines. This kind of spring manufacturing process tends to melt the thin layers of the fine metal particles that are distributed evenly by use of a coating mechanism. This often involves the act of fastening a substrate plate that usually exists in a metallic nature, into an indexing table moving in a vertical axis. The entire process takes place within a chamber that contains a tightly controlled atmospheric nature of an inert gas. After the constant distribution of each and every layer, each geometric slice of 2D layer is fused through selective application of a highly-powered laser beam. The applied laser energy is often more intense to

Value of Homework Essay Example for Free

Value of Homework Essay Homework can be defined in simple words as â€Å"any task assigned to students by school teachers that are meant to be carried out during non school hours (cooper 1989).†Students are expected to complete their homework time. Completing homework properly helps students with understand their class work, quizzes, tests, and exams. Most parents think their children are getting less homework. Students who are from low income homes should review over their homework. There is a specific time students for each grade should be spending on their homework. All parents want their children to do well in school. Most parents want to know what their children are learning in school and how they’re doing. Parents usually ask their children if they have homework and how much. These days’ parents say that their children are getting less homework, no matter how much their children get. They just want to see their children studying all day. Sometimes children do get less homework but that doesn’t mean they should review over the work. Parents usually tell them that they should review over their work if they finish early. For parents homework is as easy as going down a slide, but for some students, homework is like fishing because it is boring. Students who are from low income homes might not have all the resources that students form high income homes might have, but they should still review over their homework. The more they review the better they will do in school. Students from low income homes should go for extra help if they don’t understand something. Some students might have well educated parents who can help them but if they don’t they should go for extra help. For some low income home students, homework is as hard as a rock because it is hard, and for most high income home students, homework sometimes has easy killing questions. There is a specific time students from each grade should be spending on their homework. Homework is work at home, work at home is homework. Students from high school should spend at least 1  ½ to 2  ½ hours per night on their homework. Middle school students should spend at least less than 1 hour per night, but if students spend more time on their homework than this, they will probably do better, and everything will seem easier for them to understand. As it was mentioned before, homework is very important to get good grades on tests, quizzes, exams, etc. For some students homework is very hard, for some students homework is very easy, and for some students homework is just fine. But students should always keep in mind that homework is the key to get good marks in classes.

Problems with the US Education System

Problems with the US Education System One of the biggest problems with public school today is that academic performance is declining, particularly in urban areas and among disadvantaged populations. It is well known that education in the US has fallen behind many other countries internationally. We are behind most other countries in both science and math education. The Ayn Rand Institute puts it best, saying, American education is in ruins. In addition to the educational problems, the decline of the family involvement has been such that one now sees public service announcements reminding parents that they need to be the main influence in their kids lives. Although this problem bears disproportionately on the economically disadvantaged, who have no parents at home because all available adults must work to make ends meat. There seems to be a positive correlation between family income and educational achievement. The U. S. Census Bureau states that in 1996 23.7% of white high school graduates went on to complete at least four years of college education, compared to 13.5% for blacks and only 9.3% for Hispanics. So, the percentage of white high school graduates that go on to complete four or more years of college is more than twice the figure for the combined percentage for blacks and Hispanics (11.4%)! With statistics like these, its no wonder why the rich seem to get richer and the poor remain stuck in the gutter generation after generation. The effects of poverty are detrimental to students achievement and life prospects. For example, children and youth from low-income families are often older than others in their grade level, move more slowly through the educational system, are more likely to drop out, and are less likely to find work. Children in poverty are also more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems and are less likely than others to be highly engaged in school. These detrimental effects of living in poverty are further compounded for families that also are raising children with a disability. Furthermore, parents in low-income families are less likely to help their children complete homework assignments (Morrison, 2007). Historically, Americans have viewed education as an answer to many social ills; but a national poll found that 47 percent of Americans would give the nations public schools a grade of C for the quality of their work, and 19 percent would grade the schools as D or F. When asked about the schools in their own community, slightly less than half graded the schools as A or B, 35 percent gave a grade of C, and 11 percent assigned grades of D or F (Polling Report, 2007). (Lauer, 2007). Families are in a continual state of change as a result of social issues and changing times. Even the definition of what a family is varies as society changes. Families now include arrangements other than that of the traditional nuclear family: Single-parent families, headed by mothers or fathers Stepfamilies, including individuals related by either marriage or adoption Heterosexual, gay, or lesbian partners living together with children Extended families, which may include grandparents, uncles, aunts, other relatives, and individuals not related by kinship. As families change, so do the roles of parents, family members, and others. More parents work and have less time for their children and family affairs, working parents combine the roles of parents and employees, the number of hats that parents wear increases as families change (Morrison, 2007). The effects of poverty are detrimental to students achievement and life prospects. For example, children and youth from low-income families are often older than others in their grade level, move more slowly through the educational system, are more likely to drop out, and are less likely to find work. Children in poverty are also more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems and are less likely than others to be highly engaged in school. These detrimental effects of living in poverty are further compounded for families that also are raising children with a disability. Furthermore, parents in low-income families are less likely to help their children complete homework assignments (Morrison, 2007). Historically, Americans have viewed education as an answer to many social ills; but a national poll found that 47 percent of Americans would give the nations public schools a grade of C for the quality of their work, and 19 percent would grade the schools as D or F. When asked about the schools in their own community, slightly less than half graded the schools as A or B, 35 percent gave a grade of C, and 11 percent assigned grades of D or F (Polling Report, 2007). (Lauer, 2007). The crisis in American schools takes three major forms. First, student academic performance is declining, particularly in urban areas and among traditionally disadvantaged student populations. Second, discipline and moral behavior is quickly becoming non-existent. Third, the per-student expenditure is inflated beyond what is necessary. The first problem with public school today is that academic performance is declining, particularly in urban areas and among disadvantaged populations. In the 1980s, Americas education crisis received widespread publicity. Several reports were done on the impact of this education crisis on the workforce. These reports, especially those by the Hudson Institute and David Kearns, indicated massive shortcomings in education that left high-school graduates unable to effectively function in an increasingly technological and service-oriented economy (Tyson 1990). Beyond the area of skills-based education, public schools are sadly lacking in liberal arts education. It is well known that education in the US has fallen behind many other countries internationally. We are behind most other countries in both science and math education (Morrone 2000, U.S. EPA 1996). More specifically, the US ranks 18th out of 21 countries in math as a result of the dominance of progressive education techniques replacing traditional learning (Bernstein 2000). Even here in college, where the students represented are among the top in the nation, problems with object ive math prevail. The Ayn Rand Institute (2000) puts it best, saying, American education is in ruins. Students cannot read, write, add or think?. Parents who can afford to, send their children to private schools, in the desperate hope of finding sane teaching? More than ever, employers are left to pick up the pieces, training school graduates in the basic skills necessary for working life. These problems are exacerbated for African-Americans. According to the Economist (2003), Blacks who are disproportionately concentrated in inner-city areas) are getting a lousy deal from the public-school system. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, Americas equivalent of a national report card, reveals that the average black 17-year-old is four years behind his white counterpart in math and reading and five years behind in science. Black students are three times more likely than whites to be shunted off into dead-end special educational classes. In addition to educational problems, the much-heralded social engineers that seek to impose Progressive norms on Americas students have unfortunately succeeded. The rising self-esteem movement that seeks to avoid blame has clearly left its mark on our public education system. The retrogression toward anarchy occurred on the watch of Progressive education, which seeks to socialize students above actually providing knowledge. It is no wonder that an educational philosophy centered around never finding fault with another and seeking consensus before reason would lead to both educational failure of massive proportion and an increase in violent behavior due to the inability of students to reason together (Woiceshyn, 2000). We can hardly claim we werent warned. John Locke, the most influential philosopher in the minds of our founders, indicated he could easily do without public education. Lockes fears regarding civic education about have been borne out in contemporary America, as young peo ple are increasingly left to shift for themselves. The decline of the family has been such that one now sees public service announcements reminding parents that they need to be the main influence in their kids lives (Schaub, 2002).? Again, this problem bears disproportionately on the economically disadvantaged, who have no parents at home because all available adults must work to make ends meet. Predictably, black males are the most disadvantaged of all, as indicated by their higher rates of incarceration (Mauer, 1990) and suspension from school. Conclusion One thing we can say with certainty about the educational landscape today is that parents, families, and communities are as much a part of the educational process as are children, teachers, and staff. At no other time in U.S. educational history has support for family and community involvement in schools and programs been so high. All concerned view the involvement of families and communities as critical for individual student success, as well as for the success of the American dream of providing all children with an education that will meet their needs and enable them to be productive members of society (Morrison, 2007) Teachers are born, not made and with training and practice teachers are transformed from strong ones into gifted ones. I personally do not believe there is a single formula for classroom success. In order to be an effective teacher one needs to employ structural strategies to address the range of students learning needs. I also believe that, part of being successful in todays classroom is having relationships with the students that are based on maintaining appropriate roles, which suggests clarity in behavioral expectation and consistency in response to disciplinary situations. Communication and classroom management are vital to the success of teaching, having a sense of humor; knowledge and caring are also needed for todays teachers. In general teachers success=student success. School tracking is the process of separating students into leveled course selections according to academic ability. But the matching of students to different tracks tends to bring with it racial, ethnic and social-class overtones from the very beginning. Jeannie Oakes found that race more than ability determined which students were placed in which tracks, and that the lower tracked students had fewer learning opportunities and teachers expected little from them and offered fewer constructive comments. The first public school in America was established by Puritan settlers in 1635. The school was publicly funded and the first classes were held in the home of the schools master. What is so fascinating is that 5 of the 56 signers of the US Constitution attended Boston Latin: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Treat Paine, and William Hooper. The basis to create a public school system was initially formed by. Jefferson. In the 1600s, the dominant belief on educating the children was due to religious reasons. However, with the arrival of people from many countries and belonging to different faiths led to a weakening of the concept. People rejected the English only school and opposed the clergy imposing their religious views through public education. By the middle of the eighteenth century, private schooling had become the norm. Jefferson believed that education should be under the control of the government, free from religious biases, and available to all people irrespective of their status in society. Until the 1840s the education system was highly localized and available only to wealthy people. Reformers like Horace Mann and Henry Barnard who wanted all children to gain the benefits of education opposed this. As a result of their efforts, free public education at the elementary level was available for all American children by the end of the 19th century. Education has not always been free and available to everyone. Many people had to die in order to provide minorities as well as the poor the opportunity to attend equal schools. The first blacks arrived as slaves in the colonies in 1619 and were initially taught by the missionaries to convert them to Christianity. In spite of individual efforts, the education of blacks remained very low until Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The literacy rate that was around 5% in the 1860s rose to 40% in 1890 and by 1910 it was at 70%. During the 1950s segregation by race in public and private schools was still common in the United States. In 1954 the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and by 1980 the federal courts succeeded in eliminating the system of legalized segregation in southern schools. Is the education system better off today? We all know that the advancement in technology and learning methods has brought about a lot of change for the better in the public education. However, Schools are facing other social problems such violence, drugs, alcohol, smoking, and sex-related issues. Low tracks suffered from more classroom management problems, and focused more on social rather than academic matters. Tracking does not result in the equal and equitable distribution of effective schooling among all students. Instead, it allocates the most valuable school experiences to students who already have the greatest academic, economic, and social advantages. I tend to lean toward the conservative and traditional way teaching, therefore, I fine the Teacher-Centered Philosophy approach is more in-line with my thinking. For the Perennialist, reality is a world of reason and would favor a curriculum of subjects and doctrine, taught through highly disciplined drill and behavior control. Kids come to school with lots of knowledge and lots of interests. However, the job of the school is to teach them what they do not know and teach these things in a systematic and organized way. The students are there to learn what they do not know, thus, the environment should be task oriented and disciplined. It is not to fill their minds with isolated fragments of information but to fill them with systematic knowledge. They need to learn, and as they get older, they need human insights and skills that come from the disciplines. Najlaa Reference: Sadker, David M.. Teachers Schools and Society: A Brief Introduction to Education, 2nd Edition. McGraw-Hill/Course As a teacher, you will be called to follow your ethical compass to protect the physical and emotional well-being of your students and to guide students own ethical development (Sadker 2008, pg. 271). Teachers must take a position on moral issues and help students understand right from wrong. But they also have to be aware of their first impressions and be sure they have all the relevant facts. If one does not have them, get them. In the classroom teachers may not use racist or sexist humor or exchange grades for money or sexual favors. They need to think before acting, respect and be sensitive to cultural differences. For example, think twice before telling a joke (any joke!) that might offend other races or cultures. Teachers have always been considered role models for their students and whatever they say and do will have a great impact on them.

Service Quality in ICBC

Service Quality in ICBC Abstract The development of computer technology and information network technology has brought massive challenges to financial services organizations. Online banking, which provides financial services to customers via Internet, plays an increasingly important role and still has tremendous potential for development. At the same time, the global and local competition between financial institutions has become more intense. Therefore, as the biggest commercial bank in China, it is very important for the managers of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to build a long-term customer relationship. This project has five objectives to achieve: The first objective is to test whether there is a difference between customer expected and perceived service quality in ICBC online banking services. Secondly, the study aims to examine the relationship between customer perceived service quality and customer satisfaction in ICBC online banking services. The third objective is to examine the relationship between customer perceived service quality and customer loyalty in ICBC online banking services. The fourth objective is to examine the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the online banking services of ICBC, investigate the current situation and give some evaluations. Finally, find out how the dealing with customer complaint in ICBC customer service department influences customer loyalty. Based on the objectives, after decides the type of investigation and research approach, five pairs of hypotheses are formulated to test the relationship between variables. The results of this study indicate that there are high positive relationship between customer perceived service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty. There is also a medium positive relationship between handle customer complaint and customer loyalty. According to these, the ICBC online banking must establish a long term strategy to improve the perceived service quality, satisfying their customer, handling customer complaint promptly in order to achieve more loyal customers. Declaration of Originality I declare that this thesis entitled â€Å"Examining the Service Quality, Customer satisfaction and Loyalty in Online Banking Services of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China† has been composed by myself and has not been presented or accepted in any previous application for a degree. The work, of which this is a record, has been carried out by myself unless otherwise stated and where the work is mine, it reflects personal views and values. All quotations have been distinguished by quotation marks and all sources of information have been acknowledged by means of references including those of the Internet. Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Overview In the past twenty years, the pace of change in financial services sector has been dramatic. The development of computer technology and information network technology has introduced a new virtual economy based on the Internet. As the Internet provides new communication channels to banking industry, the number of online banking websites increased rapidly (Aladwani, 2001). Online banking, an important part of the Internet economy, plays an increasingly important role and still has tremendous potential for development. Mols (2000) indicated that the introduction and customers’ adoption of online banking will bring a massive change in the relationship between retailing banks and customers. At the same time, the global and local competition between financial institutions has become more intense. As a result, building long-term customer relationships becomes ever more important as a part of financial institutions’ strategy. How to satisfy customers and gain customer loyalty has become one of the best means of obtaining competitive advantage. Since China’s accession to the WTO, many foreign banks have begun to do business in China. They not only brought advanced management methods and business philosophy, but also made the financial market in China more competitive. As a consequence of this competition, China’s commercial banks lost a large number of high-end customers in a short period of time. Faced with the loss of customers and the future trend of the growth of profit changing from deposits and loans to intermediary business, China’s commercial banks began to recognize the importance of improving customer satisfaction and loyalty and stepped up their efforts to compete with their foreign counterparts (www.financialnews.com.cn). Due to the increasingly competitive marketing environment, enterprises must be customer oriented (Kotler, 1997). With regarding to banking industry, the service quality is considered as the most important competitive weapon (Staford, 1996). Therefore, how to improve service quality and satisfy customer become a very important marketing strategy in banking industry. Service quality has been many researchers’ interest in recent years by the impellent of Parasuraman et al. (1985). There have been many researches identified the key factors impact on the service quality of traditional banks (Jun and Cai, 2001). However, there are few studies on the customer perceived service quality of online banking services (Broderick and Vachirapornpuk, 2002). Customer loyalty even received less attention than service quality and customer satisfaction (Caruana, 2000). The concepts of service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty are linked together (Caruana, 2000). As illustrated by Caruana (2000:611), â€Å"service quality as an antecedent construct and service loyalty as an outcome variable of customer satisfaction†. Therefore, it is important for banks to know the current performance of their services and understand the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty. In Fecikova’s (2004:57) words: â€Å"Customer satisfaction has become an important issue for commercial and public service organisations.† The standards to judge a company’s win or lose are based on how many customers they can keep. Thus, how to satisfy customers and maintain loyal customers have become important marketing strategies of Chinese online banking industry. However, no matter how well the services are designed and delivered, mistakes will happen. The majority of customers will participate in private word-of-mouth activities regarding their consumptive activities (Day and Landon, 1977). The valence of these word-of-mouth activities may be negative, neutral, or positive. When there is a difference between customer expectation and the actual performance of products or services, the negative feelings will result in complaint behaviour. Therefore, how to handle customer complaints, restore the confidence of customers and reduce the loss of customers has also been an important task to companies in the services process. 1.2 Research Objectives There are some marketing and financial literatures on the services and customer relationship of traditional banks, but few researches are done on the services quality and customer loyalty of online banking. This study presents an analysis of the service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), focuses on the relationship between services quality and customer satisfaction and loyalty, and how handle customer complaint influence customer loyalty. This project has five objectives to achieve: The first objective is to test whether there is a difference between customer expected and perceived service quality in ICBC online banking services. Secondly, the study aims to examine the relationship between customer perceived service quality and customer satisfaction in ICBC online banking services. The third objective is to examine the relationship between customer perceived service quality and customer loyalty in ICBC online banking services. The fourth objective is to examine the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the online banking services of ICBC, investigate the current situation and give some evaluations. Finally, this study aims to find out how the dealing with customer complaint in ICBC customer service department influences customer loyalty of ICBC online banking. 1.3 Structure of Project This project is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 is the overview and introduction of the research. In Chapter 2, the writer introduces the development and history of online banking services and its development in ICBC. After that, the writer reviews the relevant theories of service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and customer complaint, explains how they were measured and the relationship between them, which are mainly based on previous findings. Using these theories, Chapter 3 illustrates the research questions and methodology of this research, the structure of questionnaire was also introduced in this section. Chapter 4 explains the findings of this research, discussing the current situation of ICBC online banking services, examining the relationships between these variables and give some recommendations. In the final Chapter, the writer summarizes the research, discusses the findings and introduces a number of limitations of this study. This section also contains opinions and suggestions on developing the online banking in the future. Chapter 2 Review of the Literature 2.1 Introduction This chapter first introduces the overview of Chinese online banking services and the development of ICBC online banking. Secondly, the writer clarified what the service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer complaint have been covered in the previous study, indicates which factors would affect them and what kind of methods were used to measure them. In this part, the characteristics of online services and customer’s adoption of online banking services are also addressed. Finally, the relationships between these four concepts are reviewed. Bloemer et al. (1999) suggested that although the previous studies indicate that there are obvious relationships between service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, however, how strength the relationships are still not clear (Bloemer er al., 1999). Therefore, based on the literature review, the writer presents a research model for this study as well. 2.2 Background of Chinese Online Banking Services 2.2.1 Overview Online banking services are broadly defined as the ability to carry out bank transactions electronically, usually via the internet. It is an important part of the Internet economy. All business transactions are done via the banks’ websites (en.wikipedia.org). Online banking refers to several kinds of services through which bank customers can gain information and services such as money transfer, bill payment, short loan, investment, buy insurance and so on, via a page on Internet without leaving their homes or organizations (Sathye, 1999). There are several studies indicated that online banking services are the most profitable products to banks (Robinson, 2000). By eliminating the infrastructure costs associated with branch-based retail banking services. Online banking is able to offer instant service and lower service charges than their competitors. Online banking is the cheapest channel for banks to deliver services (Robinson, 2000; Giglio, 2002). Research shown that the cost of an average online banking transaction is only 10 percents of the cost of a similar average branch transaction (Kolodinsky et al., 2004). Through provide services online, banks can reduce their expenditure on hard ware and staff in branch (Karjaluoto et al., 2003). At the same time, online banking service delivery channel can also help banks to retain current customers who use online banking services from any location. As Internet has become such an efficient and world-wide used communication medium, it has also become a widely used retail channel (Cho, M. and Park, S., 2001). Furthermore, online banking provides banks opportunities to attract more customers from exiting Internet users (Rotchanakitumnuai and Speece, 2003). From the customers view, online banking services are convenient and can saving time compared with traditional retail banking services. Verma et al. (2004) suggested that customers are willing to pay more for online banking services to gain both offline value and online benefit. They can use online banking services when connect to Internet without the limitation of time and location. As illustrated by Bainbridge (2008), Traditional banking was impacted greatly by the commercialization of the Internet in the early 1990s. As the Internet became more generally accessible, traditional banks began to realize its potential to deliver services to their customers while reducing long-term operational costs. Upon realizing this, they began to offer limited services online. In 1995, the first pure online bank, the Security First Network bank was founded in the United States. It provided services such as direct access to account, bill payment and check viewing, which are quite common today (Christopher, 2008). In the following twenty years, online banking services have developed rapidly and have now become a significant part of the business for commercial banks. As in other countries, Chinese commercial banks are undergoing rapid change due to advances in information technology. Eight months after the first online bank founded in the United States, in June 1996, the Bank of China set up websites and started to provide Internet banking services to the community. One year later, China Merchant Bank launched the first fully online banking â€Å"All in one Net†. It became the first fully Internet bank in China (data.chinabyte.com). Subsequently, more and more Chinese domestic banks have set up online banking services to penetrate the market and gain competitive advantage (Li, 2002). In 2000, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China launched online banking business in 31 cities in China. As the nations largest commercial bank, the opening of its online banking business aroused widespread interest. In 2002, HSBC launched its online banking services in China (data.chinabyte.com). The number of costumers and the trading volume of online banking have increased rapidly. At the end of 2007, the trading volume of corporate online banking reached 245.8 trillion RMB, which increased 163.1% compared to 2006. In the total transaction volume, corporate online banking accounts for 93.6% which is 230 trillion RMB. However, the growth of Personal Online banking was even faster in recent years. The trading volume reached 15.8 trillion RMB at the end of 2007 which is almost four times of 2006’s 4.1 trillion RMB. The number of business customers reached 0.84 million and individual customers reached 65 million at the end of 2006 (iresearch.com.cn). At the same time, the range of services provided by online banking has also increased. Before 2000, some of the banks only provided information services. Now they provide services such as enquiry, investment advice, money transfers, buying and selling of securities, online payments and, in some banks, small loans, housing mortgage loans and other credit facilities. As the 21st century is a customer-oriented century, how to create and maintain customer has became an important part of marketing strategy of banking industry. As information technology advanced and communication channels diversified, customers can use a variety channels to acquire more complete information and choices, to achieve their own best interests. As illustrated by, customer’s role in consumer economy has changed from the recipient to products or services to the decision maker. Most banks also aware that customers are becoming a dominant position, however, how to use information technology and limited sources to achieve the best and most efficient service quality to satisfy customers, gain loyalty customers, ensure the source of profit, these have became the focus of the operation of Chinese banks. 2.2.2 Introduction of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China As the largest one of four big stated-owned commercial banks which dominate the financial markets in China. The ICBC is the leader in online banking services and is constantly introducing advanced online banking products and services to the public. The following figure illustrates its repaid growth in online banking. Figure 2.1 ICBC Online Banking Trading Volume We can see form the figure above, in 2000, ICBCs online banking trading volume amounted only RMB 2.03 trillion, in 2002 this number grew to RMB 8.77 trillion which is almost 4 times of 2000. In the following five years, the ICBC online banking trading volume kept a rapid growth rate. In 2005, it went beyond RMB 46 trillion, growing 23 times compared to that in 2000. By the end of 2007, ICBC online trading volume jumped to RMB 102.88 trillion, which is more than 50 times of 2000. At the same time, the customers of ICBC online banking grew rapidly. At the end of 2007, ICBC Online banking has had 980,000 business customers and 39.08 million individual customers (icbc.com.cn). As illustrated in figure 2, the individual customers of ICBC online banking kept an continued rapid growth from 0.2 million in 2000 to 48.5 million in June of 2008. Currently, ICBC online banking provides a variety of services; customers can transfer money, pay bills, buy stocks or bonds, change foreign currency and so on. It has been very successful and has won various awards in China. It is also widely recognized and respected in the international banking sector. In every year from 2003 to 2006, ICBC was granted the â€Å"Best Personal Internet Bank of China† award by Global Finance. All these have established ICBC as a leader in e-banking in China and have put it among the top financial players in the international arena (icbc.com.cn). 2.3 Introduction to Service 2.3.1 Definition of Service According to Kotler and Keller (2006:374), â€Å"services are intangible, inseparable, variable and perishable products†. Therefore, services require more quality control than products. Financial services are services directed specifically at people’s money or wealth, they are concern with organizations, individuals and their finances (Ennew and Waite, 2007). Nowadays there are a whole range of finance services, such as banking services, credit cards, insurance, foreign exchange, stock and bonds trading and so on. 2.3.2 Characteristics of Service In the earlier marketing literature, Gummesson (1987) suggested that â€Å"services are something that can be bought and sole but which you cannot drop on your foot.† Basically, services are process or experiences (Bateson, 1977; Bowen and Schneider, 1988; Parasuraman et al., 1985). We cannot own a bank account as we own a car, but we have the right to use the bank account doing various financial transactions on our behalf by banks. According to Kotler and Keller (2006), services have for distinctive characteristics which are intangibility, inseparability, variability and perishability. Most services are intangible (Beteson, 1977). They cannot be counted, measured and verified before sale to assure quality. Thus the company may find it difficult to understand the consumers’ evaluation of service quality (Zenthaml, 1981). Ennew and Waite (2007) suggested that services are heterogeneity because service performance different from customer to customer. The performance of services may be totally different from the customer’s perception. Those characters of services indicate that quality of services is more difficult to evaluate than products. Although these are widely used in services marketing, many researchers have different thoughts. Loverloch and Gummesson (2004) argue that this framework has weaknesses, such as intangibility which is ambiguous, they suggested that many services also involve some tangible elements and outcomes. Vargo and Lush (2004) also highlight the inability of this framework to distinguish between goods and services. 2.4 Introduction to Service Quality 2.4.1 Definition of Service Quality Marketing literature has provided many definitions of service quality. Before 1980’s, most research of quality focused on how to define and measure the quality of tangible products. As the service industry developed vigorously, more and more scholars did lots of exploration and study about service quality. However, due to the characteristics of intangible, heterogeneous, perishable and indivisibility, service is hard to define, measure and control (Crosby, 1979). According to the American Society for Quality (Miller, C., 1993), â€Å"quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs†. Levitt (1972) suggested that services quality refers to the results of services can meet the standards set by the customers. Sasser and Olsen (1978) defined services quality from materials, equipment and personnel. This classification suggests that service quality not only including the final results, but also including the provision of services. Gronoroos (1982) firstly proposed the concept of perceived service quality, he suggested that service quality generated from the comparison between expected service quality and the experienced service quality. According to Lewis and Boom (1983), service quality is the consistency of the transfer of service and expectations of service. Customer’s perceptions of quality usually come from their comparison between expected and perceived quality. The result of this comparison is, when the perceived quality is higher than expected quality, customer will get good quality of service or satisfaction with it (Parasuraman, et. al, 1985). Six years later, they pointed out that service quality is a psychological assessment that is measured by customers according to the gap between the expectation and actual service quality (Parasuraman, et. al, 1991). However, Stewart, Hope and Muhlemann (1998) suggested that service quality should be distanced by who provide the service and how they provide it. The former is evaluated after the service, while the latter is evaluated in the process of deliver service. Sarsser et al. (1998) argued that service quality should be defined through three factors which are materials, equipment and person. They suggested service quality not only include the results, but also include the provision of services. Service level and service quality are similar, service level can be divided into expected service level and perceived service level (Sarsser et al., 1998). In recent years, the definition of service quality improved towards customer factor. Harrison (2000) described that service quality is basically concerned with meeting customer’s need and requirements and how well the service level delivered meets customer expectations. Zeithaml and Bitner (2000) argue that there are two levels of customer expectations, desired service and adequate service. The former is defined as the â€Å"wish for† level of service performance, while the latter is defined as the basic service expectations. According to Kim et al. (1998), financial institutions always provide generally undifferentiated services to customer. Therefore, service quality becomes the most important factor. 2.4.2 Dimensions of Service Quality Marketing literature provide many views of the measurement dimensions of services quality. Sasser et al. (1978) suggested that there are three different dimensions of service performance: levels of material, facilities, and personnel. Gronroos (1982) divided service quality into two types: technical quality and functional quality. The former refers to what customers are actually receiving from the service , the latter refers to the process in which the service is delivered. Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) argued that service quality has three dimensions physical quality, such as equipment; corporate quality, such as company’s image; interactive quality, which means the interaction 74bb1v8140customers. Parasuraman et al (1985) suggested there are ten dimensions of service quality, which are reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding the customer and tangibles. After further study, they improved these to five dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurances, tangibles (Parasuraman et al., 1988). Figure 2.3 illustrates the structure of their finding. Source: Parasuraman et al., (1985,1988) Brady and Cronin (2001) presented a service quality model of three dimensions: interaction quality, physical environment quality and outcome quality. Interaction quality refers to the interaction between customer and employee in the process of service delivery. It is impacted by attitude, behavior and expertise. Physical environment refers to customer’s evaluation of physical facilities or building design. Outcome quality indicates the result of services (Brady and Cronin, 2001). 2.4.3 Importance of Service Quality With the development of world economy and the pace of globalisation, most markets have been very competitive, in order to survive, companies need to provide good quality services to satisfy and retain loyalty customers (Fecikova, 2004). According to Broderick and Vachirapornpuk (2002), not only the technology changes overtime, customer expectation and perception of online services also changes continuously. Therefore, service quality will become a very important issue to online banks. Nowadays, as the process of globalization has made the market competition in financial industry more and more intense. Customers have been considered as the most importance to service industry (MacDonald et al, 2000). At the same time, customers’ expectations of service quality are constantly increase, while their tolerance of poor services is constantly decline (Smith and Lewis, 1989). Therefore, it is increasingly difficult for the company to success in the competitive market. Only the company which provide better services than others can gain competitive advantage in the market and gain more customers (Gronroos, 1990). Easingwood and Storey (1993) suggested that service quality is the most important factor for the success of financial industry. Therefore, providing high quality services to customers is important for a bank to success and survival in today’s competitive market (Wang et al., 2003). 2.4.4 Measuring Service Quality As service quality directly relates with customer satisfaction, more and more company concern measuring service quality an important task. According to Baggs and Kleiner (1999:36), â€Å"The measurement of customer service is the most important variable that a company has to manage. Customer service includes the overall picture that an organisation presents to the public.† Due to the characteristics of intangible, heterogeneous, perishable and indivisibility, service is hard to measure and control (Crosby, 1979). Gronoroos (1984) suggested that service quality should be measured by compare the customer perception and expectation of services. However, most of service quality studies have been focused on the development of instruments to measure service quality directly. Cronin Taylor (1992) argue and change this method to a comparison of performance with ideal standards, or from performance perceptions only. Their performance is mostly based on employees. Customers’ evaluation of service quality is influenced by their interactions with the employees. Recently, most researchers agree that services comprise of an outcome, which is an achievement of some end by the customer, and a process, which is the interaction customer-service provider (Blanchard Galloway 1994). Recent research suggested that to measure service quality, not only the performance of service should be measured, the process of the service delivery should be considered as well. To check the influences for service process to their perceptions; Rust and Oliver (1994) presented the three component model to indicate the influence of service process to service quality. From the figure 2.4, it clearly be seen that there are three factors deciding the perceived service quality, they are service product, service delivery and service environment. This theory support the importance of service delivery, for actual outcome quality only one of the three factors. SERVQUAL Model SERVQUAL model is the most widely used method to measure service quality both in academic research and business analysis. Parasuraman et. al (1985) formulated a service quality model which highlighted the requirements for deliver high service quality. The model identifies five gaps that may cause unsuccessful services delivery. There are five gaps in this model. Gap 1 is the gap between consumer expectation and management perception. Gap 2 is the gap between management perception and service quality specification. Gap 3 is the gap between service quality specification and service delivery. Gap 4 is the gap between service delivery and external communication. Gap 5 is the gap between perceived service and expected service. Source: Parasuraman et al. (1985:44). Based on this research, Parasuraman et. al (1985) identify ten factors which determine the services quality. These determinants were: Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Competency Courtesy Communication Credibility Security Access Understanding the customer Parasuraman et al. (1988) furthered the service delivery process and established a SERVOQUAL service quality analytical framework which includes five factors: Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy(Zeithaml et al, 1990). Tangibles. All physical elements of the provision of service by banks. It includes the building, decoration, equipment, personnel, publications, visible materials, etc. Reliability. He extent to which repeated use of the product or service satisfies customers requirements of it. It creates a level of trust by the customer in the services and products provided by banks and it directly affects customer perceptions of brand, economic strength, the levels of professionalism of staff and the quality of products. Responsiveness. The speed the company responds to the requirements of customer. Typically, this is a function of the willingness of bank staff to provide the necessary services when requested by customers. It not only embodies the attitude of a bank’s service and work efficiency, but also demonstrates the difference in quality compared with the inter-bank service. Assurance. This is the customers feeling that bank staff are fully capable of dealing with problems in the course of their work. Empathy. This is a measure of the extent to which the supplier identifies the customers problems as also being their own problems and the willingness with which they take those problems on board for resolution. Typically it would include providing customers with personalized product portfolios in line with their personal needs and aspirations. Based on these five factors, they developed a 22 items scale to measure service quality. The following table illustrates the details. ries. Carman (1990) suggested adding certain dimensions which are differentially important in different industry. Cronin and Taylor (1992) argued that SERVQUAL model was not appropriate in their study of banking and fast food industries. Another criticism i Service Quality in ICBC Service Quality in ICBC Abstract The development of computer technology and information network technology has brought massive challenges to financial services organizations. Online banking, which provides financial services to customers via Internet, plays an increasingly important role and still has tremendous potential for development. At the same time, the global and local competition between financial institutions has become more intense. Therefore, as the biggest commercial bank in China, it is very important for the managers of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to build a long-term customer relationship. This project has five objectives to achieve: The first objective is to test whether there is a difference between customer expected and perceived service quality in ICBC online banking services. Secondly, the study aims to examine the relationship between customer perceived service quality and customer satisfaction in ICBC online banking services. The third objective is to examine the relationship between customer perceived service quality and customer loyalty in ICBC online banking services. The fourth objective is to examine the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the online banking services of ICBC, investigate the current situation and give some evaluations. Finally, find out how the dealing with customer complaint in ICBC customer service department influences customer loyalty. Based on the objectives, after decides the type of investigation and research approach, five pairs of hypotheses are formulated to test the relationship between variables. The results of this study indicate that there are high positive relationship between customer perceived service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty. There is also a medium positive relationship between handle customer complaint and customer loyalty. According to these, the ICBC online banking must establish a long term strategy to improve the perceived service quality, satisfying their customer, handling customer complaint promptly in order to achieve more loyal customers. Declaration of Originality I declare that this thesis entitled â€Å"Examining the Service Quality, Customer satisfaction and Loyalty in Online Banking Services of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China† has been composed by myself and has not been presented or accepted in any previous application for a degree. The work, of which this is a record, has been carried out by myself unless otherwise stated and where the work is mine, it reflects personal views and values. All quotations have been distinguished by quotation marks and all sources of information have been acknowledged by means of references including those of the Internet. Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Overview In the past twenty years, the pace of change in financial services sector has been dramatic. The development of computer technology and information network technology has introduced a new virtual economy based on the Internet. As the Internet provides new communication channels to banking industry, the number of online banking websites increased rapidly (Aladwani, 2001). Online banking, an important part of the Internet economy, plays an increasingly important role and still has tremendous potential for development. Mols (2000) indicated that the introduction and customers’ adoption of online banking will bring a massive change in the relationship between retailing banks and customers. At the same time, the global and local competition between financial institutions has become more intense. As a result, building long-term customer relationships becomes ever more important as a part of financial institutions’ strategy. How to satisfy customers and gain customer loyalty has become one of the best means of obtaining competitive advantage. Since China’s accession to the WTO, many foreign banks have begun to do business in China. They not only brought advanced management methods and business philosophy, but also made the financial market in China more competitive. As a consequence of this competition, China’s commercial banks lost a large number of high-end customers in a short period of time. Faced with the loss of customers and the future trend of the growth of profit changing from deposits and loans to intermediary business, China’s commercial banks began to recognize the importance of improving customer satisfaction and loyalty and stepped up their efforts to compete with their foreign counterparts (www.financialnews.com.cn). Due to the increasingly competitive marketing environment, enterprises must be customer oriented (Kotler, 1997). With regarding to banking industry, the service quality is considered as the most important competitive weapon (Staford, 1996). Therefore, how to improve service quality and satisfy customer become a very important marketing strategy in banking industry. Service quality has been many researchers’ interest in recent years by the impellent of Parasuraman et al. (1985). There have been many researches identified the key factors impact on the service quality of traditional banks (Jun and Cai, 2001). However, there are few studies on the customer perceived service quality of online banking services (Broderick and Vachirapornpuk, 2002). Customer loyalty even received less attention than service quality and customer satisfaction (Caruana, 2000). The concepts of service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty are linked together (Caruana, 2000). As illustrated by Caruana (2000:611), â€Å"service quality as an antecedent construct and service loyalty as an outcome variable of customer satisfaction†. Therefore, it is important for banks to know the current performance of their services and understand the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty. In Fecikova’s (2004:57) words: â€Å"Customer satisfaction has become an important issue for commercial and public service organisations.† The standards to judge a company’s win or lose are based on how many customers they can keep. Thus, how to satisfy customers and maintain loyal customers have become important marketing strategies of Chinese online banking industry. However, no matter how well the services are designed and delivered, mistakes will happen. The majority of customers will participate in private word-of-mouth activities regarding their consumptive activities (Day and Landon, 1977). The valence of these word-of-mouth activities may be negative, neutral, or positive. When there is a difference between customer expectation and the actual performance of products or services, the negative feelings will result in complaint behaviour. Therefore, how to handle customer complaints, restore the confidence of customers and reduce the loss of customers has also been an important task to companies in the services process. 1.2 Research Objectives There are some marketing and financial literatures on the services and customer relationship of traditional banks, but few researches are done on the services quality and customer loyalty of online banking. This study presents an analysis of the service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), focuses on the relationship between services quality and customer satisfaction and loyalty, and how handle customer complaint influence customer loyalty. This project has five objectives to achieve: The first objective is to test whether there is a difference between customer expected and perceived service quality in ICBC online banking services. Secondly, the study aims to examine the relationship between customer perceived service quality and customer satisfaction in ICBC online banking services. The third objective is to examine the relationship between customer perceived service quality and customer loyalty in ICBC online banking services. The fourth objective is to examine the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the online banking services of ICBC, investigate the current situation and give some evaluations. Finally, this study aims to find out how the dealing with customer complaint in ICBC customer service department influences customer loyalty of ICBC online banking. 1.3 Structure of Project This project is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 is the overview and introduction of the research. In Chapter 2, the writer introduces the development and history of online banking services and its development in ICBC. After that, the writer reviews the relevant theories of service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and customer complaint, explains how they were measured and the relationship between them, which are mainly based on previous findings. Using these theories, Chapter 3 illustrates the research questions and methodology of this research, the structure of questionnaire was also introduced in this section. Chapter 4 explains the findings of this research, discussing the current situation of ICBC online banking services, examining the relationships between these variables and give some recommendations. In the final Chapter, the writer summarizes the research, discusses the findings and introduces a number of limitations of this study. This section also contains opinions and suggestions on developing the online banking in the future. Chapter 2 Review of the Literature 2.1 Introduction This chapter first introduces the overview of Chinese online banking services and the development of ICBC online banking. Secondly, the writer clarified what the service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer complaint have been covered in the previous study, indicates which factors would affect them and what kind of methods were used to measure them. In this part, the characteristics of online services and customer’s adoption of online banking services are also addressed. Finally, the relationships between these four concepts are reviewed. Bloemer et al. (1999) suggested that although the previous studies indicate that there are obvious relationships between service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, however, how strength the relationships are still not clear (Bloemer er al., 1999). Therefore, based on the literature review, the writer presents a research model for this study as well. 2.2 Background of Chinese Online Banking Services 2.2.1 Overview Online banking services are broadly defined as the ability to carry out bank transactions electronically, usually via the internet. It is an important part of the Internet economy. All business transactions are done via the banks’ websites (en.wikipedia.org). Online banking refers to several kinds of services through which bank customers can gain information and services such as money transfer, bill payment, short loan, investment, buy insurance and so on, via a page on Internet without leaving their homes or organizations (Sathye, 1999). There are several studies indicated that online banking services are the most profitable products to banks (Robinson, 2000). By eliminating the infrastructure costs associated with branch-based retail banking services. Online banking is able to offer instant service and lower service charges than their competitors. Online banking is the cheapest channel for banks to deliver services (Robinson, 2000; Giglio, 2002). Research shown that the cost of an average online banking transaction is only 10 percents of the cost of a similar average branch transaction (Kolodinsky et al., 2004). Through provide services online, banks can reduce their expenditure on hard ware and staff in branch (Karjaluoto et al., 2003). At the same time, online banking service delivery channel can also help banks to retain current customers who use online banking services from any location. As Internet has become such an efficient and world-wide used communication medium, it has also become a widely used retail channel (Cho, M. and Park, S., 2001). Furthermore, online banking provides banks opportunities to attract more customers from exiting Internet users (Rotchanakitumnuai and Speece, 2003). From the customers view, online banking services are convenient and can saving time compared with traditional retail banking services. Verma et al. (2004) suggested that customers are willing to pay more for online banking services to gain both offline value and online benefit. They can use online banking services when connect to Internet without the limitation of time and location. As illustrated by Bainbridge (2008), Traditional banking was impacted greatly by the commercialization of the Internet in the early 1990s. As the Internet became more generally accessible, traditional banks began to realize its potential to deliver services to their customers while reducing long-term operational costs. Upon realizing this, they began to offer limited services online. In 1995, the first pure online bank, the Security First Network bank was founded in the United States. It provided services such as direct access to account, bill payment and check viewing, which are quite common today (Christopher, 2008). In the following twenty years, online banking services have developed rapidly and have now become a significant part of the business for commercial banks. As in other countries, Chinese commercial banks are undergoing rapid change due to advances in information technology. Eight months after the first online bank founded in the United States, in June 1996, the Bank of China set up websites and started to provide Internet banking services to the community. One year later, China Merchant Bank launched the first fully online banking â€Å"All in one Net†. It became the first fully Internet bank in China (data.chinabyte.com). Subsequently, more and more Chinese domestic banks have set up online banking services to penetrate the market and gain competitive advantage (Li, 2002). In 2000, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China launched online banking business in 31 cities in China. As the nations largest commercial bank, the opening of its online banking business aroused widespread interest. In 2002, HSBC launched its online banking services in China (data.chinabyte.com). The number of costumers and the trading volume of online banking have increased rapidly. At the end of 2007, the trading volume of corporate online banking reached 245.8 trillion RMB, which increased 163.1% compared to 2006. In the total transaction volume, corporate online banking accounts for 93.6% which is 230 trillion RMB. However, the growth of Personal Online banking was even faster in recent years. The trading volume reached 15.8 trillion RMB at the end of 2007 which is almost four times of 2006’s 4.1 trillion RMB. The number of business customers reached 0.84 million and individual customers reached 65 million at the end of 2006 (iresearch.com.cn). At the same time, the range of services provided by online banking has also increased. Before 2000, some of the banks only provided information services. Now they provide services such as enquiry, investment advice, money transfers, buying and selling of securities, online payments and, in some banks, small loans, housing mortgage loans and other credit facilities. As the 21st century is a customer-oriented century, how to create and maintain customer has became an important part of marketing strategy of banking industry. As information technology advanced and communication channels diversified, customers can use a variety channels to acquire more complete information and choices, to achieve their own best interests. As illustrated by, customer’s role in consumer economy has changed from the recipient to products or services to the decision maker. Most banks also aware that customers are becoming a dominant position, however, how to use information technology and limited sources to achieve the best and most efficient service quality to satisfy customers, gain loyalty customers, ensure the source of profit, these have became the focus of the operation of Chinese banks. 2.2.2 Introduction of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China As the largest one of four big stated-owned commercial banks which dominate the financial markets in China. The ICBC is the leader in online banking services and is constantly introducing advanced online banking products and services to the public. The following figure illustrates its repaid growth in online banking. Figure 2.1 ICBC Online Banking Trading Volume We can see form the figure above, in 2000, ICBCs online banking trading volume amounted only RMB 2.03 trillion, in 2002 this number grew to RMB 8.77 trillion which is almost 4 times of 2000. In the following five years, the ICBC online banking trading volume kept a rapid growth rate. In 2005, it went beyond RMB 46 trillion, growing 23 times compared to that in 2000. By the end of 2007, ICBC online trading volume jumped to RMB 102.88 trillion, which is more than 50 times of 2000. At the same time, the customers of ICBC online banking grew rapidly. At the end of 2007, ICBC Online banking has had 980,000 business customers and 39.08 million individual customers (icbc.com.cn). As illustrated in figure 2, the individual customers of ICBC online banking kept an continued rapid growth from 0.2 million in 2000 to 48.5 million in June of 2008. Currently, ICBC online banking provides a variety of services; customers can transfer money, pay bills, buy stocks or bonds, change foreign currency and so on. It has been very successful and has won various awards in China. It is also widely recognized and respected in the international banking sector. In every year from 2003 to 2006, ICBC was granted the â€Å"Best Personal Internet Bank of China† award by Global Finance. All these have established ICBC as a leader in e-banking in China and have put it among the top financial players in the international arena (icbc.com.cn). 2.3 Introduction to Service 2.3.1 Definition of Service According to Kotler and Keller (2006:374), â€Å"services are intangible, inseparable, variable and perishable products†. Therefore, services require more quality control than products. Financial services are services directed specifically at people’s money or wealth, they are concern with organizations, individuals and their finances (Ennew and Waite, 2007). Nowadays there are a whole range of finance services, such as banking services, credit cards, insurance, foreign exchange, stock and bonds trading and so on. 2.3.2 Characteristics of Service In the earlier marketing literature, Gummesson (1987) suggested that â€Å"services are something that can be bought and sole but which you cannot drop on your foot.† Basically, services are process or experiences (Bateson, 1977; Bowen and Schneider, 1988; Parasuraman et al., 1985). We cannot own a bank account as we own a car, but we have the right to use the bank account doing various financial transactions on our behalf by banks. According to Kotler and Keller (2006), services have for distinctive characteristics which are intangibility, inseparability, variability and perishability. Most services are intangible (Beteson, 1977). They cannot be counted, measured and verified before sale to assure quality. Thus the company may find it difficult to understand the consumers’ evaluation of service quality (Zenthaml, 1981). Ennew and Waite (2007) suggested that services are heterogeneity because service performance different from customer to customer. The performance of services may be totally different from the customer’s perception. Those characters of services indicate that quality of services is more difficult to evaluate than products. Although these are widely used in services marketing, many researchers have different thoughts. Loverloch and Gummesson (2004) argue that this framework has weaknesses, such as intangibility which is ambiguous, they suggested that many services also involve some tangible elements and outcomes. Vargo and Lush (2004) also highlight the inability of this framework to distinguish between goods and services. 2.4 Introduction to Service Quality 2.4.1 Definition of Service Quality Marketing literature has provided many definitions of service quality. Before 1980’s, most research of quality focused on how to define and measure the quality of tangible products. As the service industry developed vigorously, more and more scholars did lots of exploration and study about service quality. However, due to the characteristics of intangible, heterogeneous, perishable and indivisibility, service is hard to define, measure and control (Crosby, 1979). According to the American Society for Quality (Miller, C., 1993), â€Å"quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs†. Levitt (1972) suggested that services quality refers to the results of services can meet the standards set by the customers. Sasser and Olsen (1978) defined services quality from materials, equipment and personnel. This classification suggests that service quality not only including the final results, but also including the provision of services. Gronoroos (1982) firstly proposed the concept of perceived service quality, he suggested that service quality generated from the comparison between expected service quality and the experienced service quality. According to Lewis and Boom (1983), service quality is the consistency of the transfer of service and expectations of service. Customer’s perceptions of quality usually come from their comparison between expected and perceived quality. The result of this comparison is, when the perceived quality is higher than expected quality, customer will get good quality of service or satisfaction with it (Parasuraman, et. al, 1985). Six years later, they pointed out that service quality is a psychological assessment that is measured by customers according to the gap between the expectation and actual service quality (Parasuraman, et. al, 1991). However, Stewart, Hope and Muhlemann (1998) suggested that service quality should be distanced by who provide the service and how they provide it. The former is evaluated after the service, while the latter is evaluated in the process of deliver service. Sarsser et al. (1998) argued that service quality should be defined through three factors which are materials, equipment and person. They suggested service quality not only include the results, but also include the provision of services. Service level and service quality are similar, service level can be divided into expected service level and perceived service level (Sarsser et al., 1998). In recent years, the definition of service quality improved towards customer factor. Harrison (2000) described that service quality is basically concerned with meeting customer’s need and requirements and how well the service level delivered meets customer expectations. Zeithaml and Bitner (2000) argue that there are two levels of customer expectations, desired service and adequate service. The former is defined as the â€Å"wish for† level of service performance, while the latter is defined as the basic service expectations. According to Kim et al. (1998), financial institutions always provide generally undifferentiated services to customer. Therefore, service quality becomes the most important factor. 2.4.2 Dimensions of Service Quality Marketing literature provide many views of the measurement dimensions of services quality. Sasser et al. (1978) suggested that there are three different dimensions of service performance: levels of material, facilities, and personnel. Gronroos (1982) divided service quality into two types: technical quality and functional quality. The former refers to what customers are actually receiving from the service , the latter refers to the process in which the service is delivered. Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) argued that service quality has three dimensions physical quality, such as equipment; corporate quality, such as company’s image; interactive quality, which means the interaction 74bb1v8140customers. Parasuraman et al (1985) suggested there are ten dimensions of service quality, which are reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding the customer and tangibles. After further study, they improved these to five dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurances, tangibles (Parasuraman et al., 1988). Figure 2.3 illustrates the structure of their finding. Source: Parasuraman et al., (1985,1988) Brady and Cronin (2001) presented a service quality model of three dimensions: interaction quality, physical environment quality and outcome quality. Interaction quality refers to the interaction between customer and employee in the process of service delivery. It is impacted by attitude, behavior and expertise. Physical environment refers to customer’s evaluation of physical facilities or building design. Outcome quality indicates the result of services (Brady and Cronin, 2001). 2.4.3 Importance of Service Quality With the development of world economy and the pace of globalisation, most markets have been very competitive, in order to survive, companies need to provide good quality services to satisfy and retain loyalty customers (Fecikova, 2004). According to Broderick and Vachirapornpuk (2002), not only the technology changes overtime, customer expectation and perception of online services also changes continuously. Therefore, service quality will become a very important issue to online banks. Nowadays, as the process of globalization has made the market competition in financial industry more and more intense. Customers have been considered as the most importance to service industry (MacDonald et al, 2000). At the same time, customers’ expectations of service quality are constantly increase, while their tolerance of poor services is constantly decline (Smith and Lewis, 1989). Therefore, it is increasingly difficult for the company to success in the competitive market. Only the company which provide better services than others can gain competitive advantage in the market and gain more customers (Gronroos, 1990). Easingwood and Storey (1993) suggested that service quality is the most important factor for the success of financial industry. Therefore, providing high quality services to customers is important for a bank to success and survival in today’s competitive market (Wang et al., 2003). 2.4.4 Measuring Service Quality As service quality directly relates with customer satisfaction, more and more company concern measuring service quality an important task. According to Baggs and Kleiner (1999:36), â€Å"The measurement of customer service is the most important variable that a company has to manage. Customer service includes the overall picture that an organisation presents to the public.† Due to the characteristics of intangible, heterogeneous, perishable and indivisibility, service is hard to measure and control (Crosby, 1979). Gronoroos (1984) suggested that service quality should be measured by compare the customer perception and expectation of services. However, most of service quality studies have been focused on the development of instruments to measure service quality directly. Cronin Taylor (1992) argue and change this method to a comparison of performance with ideal standards, or from performance perceptions only. Their performance is mostly based on employees. Customers’ evaluation of service quality is influenced by their interactions with the employees. Recently, most researchers agree that services comprise of an outcome, which is an achievement of some end by the customer, and a process, which is the interaction customer-service provider (Blanchard Galloway 1994). Recent research suggested that to measure service quality, not only the performance of service should be measured, the process of the service delivery should be considered as well. To check the influences for service process to their perceptions; Rust and Oliver (1994) presented the three component model to indicate the influence of service process to service quality. From the figure 2.4, it clearly be seen that there are three factors deciding the perceived service quality, they are service product, service delivery and service environment. This theory support the importance of service delivery, for actual outcome quality only one of the three factors. SERVQUAL Model SERVQUAL model is the most widely used method to measure service quality both in academic research and business analysis. Parasuraman et. al (1985) formulated a service quality model which highlighted the requirements for deliver high service quality. The model identifies five gaps that may cause unsuccessful services delivery. There are five gaps in this model. Gap 1 is the gap between consumer expectation and management perception. Gap 2 is the gap between management perception and service quality specification. Gap 3 is the gap between service quality specification and service delivery. Gap 4 is the gap between service delivery and external communication. Gap 5 is the gap between perceived service and expected service. Source: Parasuraman et al. (1985:44). Based on this research, Parasuraman et. al (1985) identify ten factors which determine the services quality. These determinants were: Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Competency Courtesy Communication Credibility Security Access Understanding the customer Parasuraman et al. (1988) furthered the service delivery process and established a SERVOQUAL service quality analytical framework which includes five factors: Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy(Zeithaml et al, 1990). Tangibles. All physical elements of the provision of service by banks. It includes the building, decoration, equipment, personnel, publications, visible materials, etc. Reliability. He extent to which repeated use of the product or service satisfies customers requirements of it. It creates a level of trust by the customer in the services and products provided by banks and it directly affects customer perceptions of brand, economic strength, the levels of professionalism of staff and the quality of products. Responsiveness. The speed the company responds to the requirements of customer. Typically, this is a function of the willingness of bank staff to provide the necessary services when requested by customers. It not only embodies the attitude of a bank’s service and work efficiency, but also demonstrates the difference in quality compared with the inter-bank service. Assurance. This is the customers feeling that bank staff are fully capable of dealing with problems in the course of their work. Empathy. This is a measure of the extent to which the supplier identifies the customers problems as also being their own problems and the willingness with which they take those problems on board for resolution. Typically it would include providing customers with personalized product portfolios in line with their personal needs and aspirations. Based on these five factors, they developed a 22 items scale to measure service quality. The following table illustrates the details. ries. Carman (1990) suggested adding certain dimensions which are differentially important in different industry. Cronin and Taylor (1992) argued that SERVQUAL model was not appropriate in their study of banking and fast food industries. Another criticism i