Thursday, August 22, 2019
Training Day Film Critique Essay Example for Free
Training Day Film Critique Essay Have you ever wondered what it was like behind the scenes while watching one of your favorite movies of all time? Well, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that some individuals never even think to think about. In the film Training Day, there are many fascinating aspects that all went into use to make such a terrific film. Everything from great storytelling, acting, characters, cinematography, and editing techniques to the sound, genres and how the directing and styles personally told the story of the cop thriller drama. Below is a list of what goes on before the movie becomes ââ¬Å"the movieâ⬠. Storytelling Training Day was a film that was centered on two Los Angeles Narcotics Police Officers over the curse of a full day in the roughest neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Ethan Hawke played a rookie Los Angeles Police Officer who is sent to become Denzel Washingtonââ¬â¢s partner upon a 24 hour evaluation by Washington to see if the rookie detective is fit enough to join Washington in the Narcotics division. The storytelling was very great in that the film was extremely unpredictable from scene to scene. That is the goal of every writer and anyone else associated with the movie industry when making a film is to make the movie as less predictable as possible. A lot of critics in the film industry gave this film a decorated review and Washington went on to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film. Denzel had a plan in place to frame Hawke by having him take drugs (which were later known to Hawke as PCP), shooting and killing his old partner and colleague (which Denzel was going to pin on Hawke in which Denzel would say that Hawke did not kill them in the same house at the same scene, which means he was rogue), and with Hawke throughout a lot of questionable incidents never consulting or alerting the Internal Affairs Bureau of the Department, which s an obvious no go in the field of law enforcement. The storytelling was also coincidental in many phases as well. During the sexual assault scene with the gang memberââ¬â¢s female cousin, Hawke fights off the attackers and before he got around to arresting them, Washington comes on the scene and dismisses the men and letââ¬â¢s them get away freely to the dismay of Hawke, who then picks up the girlââ¬â¢s photo identification to keep as evidence of an incident. Now, the coincidental aspect of all of this is when Hawke and Washington later went to the home of the girlââ¬â¢s drug dealing cousins (which Washington had already planned to have Hawke killed as he went to the bathroom and escaping out of the window). Before the guys were about to kill Hawke, they cleaned his pockets out and found a photo identification of the drug dealerââ¬â¢s cousin and ultimately, that saved Hawkeââ¬â¢s life. Acting The acting was stellar in the film as well in that it garnered an Academy Award for Denzel Washington and garnered Ethan Hawke a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Denzel played a role that was very different than the roles he had previously taken in his career and his acting in this movie is generally looked upon by a lot of critics as his best acting role outside of Malcolm X, while being completely new to the kinds of roles he had taken prior to this film. Denzel played a rogue narcotics officer for the Los Angeles Police Department who is evaluating Hawke and pushing him to become rogue throughout the film as Washington was. Washingtonââ¬â¢s acting was phenomenal in that he was a terrific villain and very easy to root against, while Hawke was the polar opposite. Hawke was a rookie detective who was squeaky clean and wanted to make a real difference in the bad neighborhoods of the city of Los Angeles. Hawkeââ¬â¢s acting was more of a serious character to Washingtonââ¬â¢s cut throat, dirty, and ruthless nature and Hawke was often the butt of Washingtonââ¬â¢s slick comments and jokes (mostly challenging and pointing to Hawkeââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"manhoodâ⬠to get him to do dirty things or to ââ¬Å"look the other wayâ⬠). Hawke mainly played the role with a serious and upset demeanor by having to be subjected to such a corrupt system and culture of the LAPD. The acting was probably the strong suit of the film along with the Cinematography. Cinematography The Cinematography of the film was also very strong in this field and this was one of the biggest reasons why this film worked so well. The cinematography of movies is often one of the most underrated aspects of them. Training Dayââ¬â¢s cinematography worked so well because it is a movie about cops and the setting was in really bad neighborhoods in Los Angeles, and due to the ââ¬Å"street drug cultureâ⬠concept of things, the cinematography had a sort of ââ¬Å"grimyâ⬠look to it which made this work so well. Part of what made that work so well is that the streets can be a grimy place and a dark place for many and the film resembled that throughout most of it, which is always a plus when you are telling a story about what goes on in the real world. What also made this work so well was that the cinematography adjusted to the characters and depending on the situation or circumstance, gave you an inside look into how they felt at that moment in time. A great example of the filmââ¬â¢s cinematography is when Washington and Hawke both are driving around in the neighborhood and Washington pressures Hawke to take a drug known as PCP and soon after for the next couple of scenes in the film, the cinematography is switched to Hawkeââ¬â¢s point of view and has him looking in a very blurred way as far as vision and having slurry speech mixed with the blurriness of the eyes due to the drugââ¬â¢s side effects. That scene pretty much opened the floodgates for a terrific adjustment of the cinematography to the character as it also did when Washington was on the ground dying after being shot many times. Editing There were quite a bit of editing work done with this film. Most of the editing was done to scenes with Washington and Hawke driving around in the squad car talking and there is over 12 minutes worth of scene editing that was not included in the film, at least as far as cuts and deleted scenes are concerned. Also, the film has an alternate ending to it as well, yet separate from the film (it is on the DVD version though). The editor of the film was Conrad Buff. Sound The sound throughout the movie was also one of the bright spots and hinged on a lot of hip hop (which was perfect for a film in that setting). The individual in charge of the sound was Russell Williams II and he was also the sound mixer of various other films such as Dancing with the Wolves and Rules of Engagement, which according to a lot of critics also had soundtracks that were very impressive. The sound in the movie is presented in Dolby Digital 5. 1. The sound from this film could have been ââ¬Å"too muchâ⬠easily, but the mixer was very productive in keeping it near perfect and not so ââ¬Å"too muchâ⬠with the sound. Besides, the sound was very easy to understand. Style and Directing The style of Training Day was unlike a lot of other crime action films. The style was more ââ¬Å"in your faceâ⬠and had a ââ¬Å"gloomyâ⬠kind of vibe to it with the angles of the cameras and most importantly, the lighting as well in which Antoine Fuqua (the director of the film) had a great habit of in his films. The style of the movie resonated with the viewers in particular that know how dark and gloomy the streets can be at certain points in time. The style bordered between those aspects and how individuals were portrayed, dressed and etc. , which worked so well for the movie. The ââ¬Å"in your face and getting dirtyâ⬠style of this movie is what made it what it was in that it did not divert from a lot of reality and never over the top (just solid acting across the board). Impact of society on the film and vice versa The impact of society on the film stemmed from police corruption and brutality of not just citizens, but innocent bystanders as well. This was filmed in relation to the allegations and facts over the years about the system of the LAPD and how corrupt and violent they can be at times. This movie reinforces that stigma attached to the LAPD and attempts to show the world how some in the department can be at times, especially dealing with constant criminals on a daily basis. On the other hand, the impact of the film on society was that it opened up a lot of eye into how corrupt many departments all over the country can be at times when it comes to drugs and criminals. It shows that sometimes even the bad guys get a break in order to catch a bigger fish and how there are many pawns in the game (crossfire in this case). This film also let the people in on what a copââ¬â¢s normal routine on the job is like and how stressful and sometimes erratic it can make an individual turn into. Genre The genre of Training Day is divided up into five distinct categories. For one, the movie is a thriller, drama, crime fiction, crime thriller, and adventure film. It varied between all of those genres throughout the course of the film. The film easily is a thriller in that it had you on the edge of your seat as it was so unpredictable from scene to scene. Of course, drama played a huge role and that is what drove the characters and story throughout the duration of the film. Last, but not least, was the crime involved in it all which made this a crime film (as with anything usually with cops). Application of at least one approach to analysis and interpretation The realist approach definitely defines this movie and it takes multiple viewings of this film and real world experience to really get to the root of this film. The director grew up in neighborhoods such as which is portrayed in the film and has a lot of experience writing these kinds of roles. This movie attempts to explain that corruption in the past has been rampant in cities like Los Angeles and how corruption is really easy to be caught up in when dealing with the people of the neighborhoods and city higher ups. The film maker is essentially trying to say that corruption happens and it happens in a lot of other places in the country and sometimes, there are good guys willing to bring down the bad guys (or cops in this case). Overall textual themes There were quite a bit of textual themes in this film. Most of the textual themes were corruption, power, and greed. A decorated, veteran police officer with everything to lose succumbs to power (which was his favorite), greed (which was unfortunate because he had a good career already) and corruption (the entire department up top was full of dirt). The central textual theme in this movie however was the seriousness and effectiveness in a lot of cases of peer pressure and how easily one could be reeled in to various things, even when they have everything to lose. Washington and Hawke both had great careers, children, family, and a lot going for them on the job, but due to the lust for power, peer pressure and greed, it eventually tackles both men to the point that recovery can be long and hard for Hawke, while too late for Washington.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Ethical concerns of the little albert study
Ethical concerns of the little albert study 1. The first major ethical concern we encountered in this exam period was that of Watson and his Little Albert study. The modern code of ethics denounces evoking fear responses from human participants, unless the participant has been made aware of and consented beforehand. As an infant, Albert was obviously unable to give consent and also unable to realize that what he was taking part in was controlled research. Scaring a child to the point where he is visibly terrified and crying seems unequivocally immoral. I take more issue with the fact that Watson didnt remove the fear in Albert by de-conditioning him, even though he had time to allow for it. The impact of the study might justify ethical wrongs it committed. It is one of the most influential studies on phobias of all time, paving the way for counterconditioning (Cover Jones) and other therapies that have allowed millions of people to overcome incapacitating fears and emotional issues. Another case briefly covered this exam period was the study done by Schreiner and Kling on Kluver-Bocy Syndrome. The syndrome is a behavioral disorder that typically occurs as a result of damage or malfunction of the amygdale. In carrying out their research, Schreiner and Kling removed the amygdale of cats and monkeys (Squire 201). This research led to a greater understanding of the brain and the importance of the amygdale, but obviously came at a cost to the animals involved in the testing. Modern research by Rusiko Bourtchouladze has shown the syndrome to hinder the ability to understand feelings and emotions. He describes how they lose their desire to compete or cooperate and an inability to detect sadness, disgust, fear or rage (Bourtchouladze 83). This is in addition to highly unusual sexual practices and various memory and recognition problems. The research was illuminating, but in retrospect, leaving an animal with a disorder in the process seems unethical and avoidable. The last psychologist Ill highlight is Harry Harlow, one of the most ethically controversial figures of modern psychology. The knowledge he attempted to gain from his research was noble; understanding the caretaker-child relationship and how this relationship leads to certain behaviors and abnormalities in the childs maturation. The execution, however, is highly unethical by todays standards. Many of the monkeys Harlow experimented on were severely traumatized by their time in the research lab. Harlow employed devices such as his rape rack to artificially inseminate monkeys and also a pit of despair to produce isolation and depression. In addition, he purposefully tried to evoke fear responses in the animals and admitted to physically abusing some of the subjects. It really doesnt come as a surprise that many of the subjects of his studies were left permanently psychotic upon the completion of the research. As ethically deplorable as Harlows studies may seem today, the impact of his studies do seem to justify their moral impropriety. The influence and impact of Harlows studies are high; they helped improve and educate society about parenting. Many of those from my fathers generation grew up with limited intimacy and affection from their parents. My dad told me that his father rarely showed any sort of physical affection towards him, never once hugging him or telling him that he loved him. The work of Harlow helped illuminate just how important contact comfort and affection is in the relationship between a child and its caregivers. This principle has also helped positively shape the methods used in dealing with children that have been abused and children in orphanages. Furthermore, some study had to be the one that led to a major push in ethical reform of psychological research. Harlows highly unethical treatment of his rhesus monkeys was a major factor in the animal advocacy movement an d also in the creation of the American Psychological Associations code of ethics. Harlow was wrong, but the publicity and attention he brought to his studies had the side effect of revealing some of the improper and unethical practices that had been occurring within psychological research. Bourtchouladze, Rusiko. Memories are made of this: how memory works in humans and animals. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Print. Squire, Larry R.. The history of neuroscience in autobiography . Washington D.C.: Society for Neuroscience, 1996. Print. 2. In contrast to the dominant thinking of the time, John Watsons behaviorism relied only on observable behavà ior for its information. His Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It is now known as the behaviorist manifesto and is one of the most influential documents in the formation of behaviorism. The prevailing school of thought in psychology at the time relied heavily on introspection, but Watson did not believe introspection to be objective enough to be measured and accurately portrayed as science. In hoping to increase this objectivity, he took the focus away from enigmatic mental processes and placed it on empiricist principles that sought to predict and control actions. Emotions to him werent understandable through introspection but rather as a response to a stimuli. One of his major pieces of research was his study of Little Albert. Albert, an infant, was exposed to a white rat which he showed no visible fear towards. Watson then began accompanying the presentation of the ra t with a loud noise. Eventually Albert was conditioned to associate the two; even when the noise was discontinued, Albert kept his fear response when presented with the rat. This study verified to Watson that conditioned reflexes could be used to explain behavior and that psychological research should be rooted in observable stimuli and responses to these stimuli. Skinner was a proponent of a school of behaviorism called radical behaviorism. In many ways, his behaviorism, which focuses on operant conditioning, has supplanted the behaviorism of Watson. Skinner was focused on behavior as a function of schedules under which rewards are attained. Rather than the reflex focused theory of Watson, Skinner incorporated more the role of consequences in behavior and conditioning. Many human and animal actions cant simply be explained as reflexes. Writing this paper, for example, is not a reflex and the stimuli that govern it do not precede it. Rather, it is influenced by what follows it, its consequences, such as a good grade and the outcome of a good grade. Of interest to Skinner in understanding behavior are the types of reinforcement we get from our actions. Positive results from a behavior will typically increase that behavior and negative results will decrease it. One of Skinners famous studies was that of superstition in the pigeon. Placing pigeon s in a box that would release food at regular intervals, Skinner found that the pigeons associated the release of the food with whatever coincidental action they had performed as it was delivered. The pigeons would then repeat this action, believing it to have an effect on the releasing of the food. This study helped continue to cement Skinners belief in and support for operant conditioning. Tolman rejected Watsons reflex based form of behaviorism. He felt that mental processes could be objective and measurable in the same way physical ones were, broadening behaviorism to incorporate the psychological concepts of purpose and cognition. To Tolman, learning does not have to manifest itself in performance, nor is reinforcement needed to connect stimuli. For Tolman, reinforcement is not the essential aspect of learning that Skinner claims it to be. Rather, we can learn things latently and then use them in a flexible manner that may not necessarily be immediate. He used studies involving rats and various mazes to demonstrate that we can learn even when rewards are not present. Rather than a rigid model based in automatic responses, Tolman saw us as creating tentative, cognitive maps that indicate to us routes, paths and relationships that are relevant to goal orientation. His theory of goal-directed behavior focuses on an organisms behavior, what it is attempting to accomplis h with the behavior and where it is going. Tolman also took Skinners idea of a third variable (a variable other than stimuli and response) and tweaked it to suit his own form of behaviorism. Rather than something external in the environment as Skinner posited, Tolmans intervening variable was something mental occurring within the person or animal, such as hunger, motivation, intelligence, or intention. A June 2002 survey by the Review of General Psychology chose Skinner as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century and I agree. He is often credited with the change in terminology for renaming academic psychology departments behaviorism departments during the 1950s. His work is highly influential in academia, psychological treatment and therapy, and the understanding of learning, education, communication, and human behavior. 3. The person in psychology that we have covered in class that has resonated most with me is Mortons study on skull size and its use to justify racism. Morton conducted an extremely biased study where he found the skull size of Caucasians to be largest and North American Indian and Africans to be smallest. His study prompted many to believe that Indians and blacks were of a different species and, in a highly Christian influenced culture, that the bible was not directed at them. This implied that African and Native Americans were not destined to heaven as their Caucasian and Asiatic counterparts were. His ethnology was accepted as a way to justify racism and slavery against the Africans who were forcefully brought to the U.S. against their will for labor. In regards to the Indians, their mistreatment was justified since they were looked at as savages or a subhuman race. In this theory, it was believed that the size of one skull is the decisive factor in terms of ones mental capacities and belief system where a larger skull is most desirable. Even if skull size was an accurate way to determine intelligence, it is obviously not true that all Caucasians would have larger skulls than all blacks. There might be some Caucasians with small skulls and blacks with larger. He was selective in choosing his subjects though where he had more women for the groups that were supposedly inferior since generally, women have smaller skulls sizes than men. This produced his desired outcome. This was a landmark study because racism had existed long before this study was published. It still continues today after this study was found to be erroneous. At the time of the study though, Caucasians justified the mistreatment of other races. They were inferior and lacked the intellectual capacities so it was not immoral. It was found though that Morton only used data that supported this conclusion and rejected data that might counter his argument. It is interesting that after this study was found to be false, other eugenic studies have come out insinuating that whites were superior. (Herrnstein and Murrays The Bell Curve comes to mind as a modern example.) These studies show the way the human mind operates. It is obvious that there was a sense of guilt in the mistreatment of other races. The only way to justify these actions to God would be through science where treating an inferior group poorly would not be immoral. The inferior group would not understand this mistreatment. Mortons study also shows that the groups doing the mistreating knew that what they were doing was not right. They knew that it was not moral to forcefully remove a race and ultimately annihilate it as they did with the Native American race and on the other hand, forcefully bring another race in a country, stripping them from their families, to act as slaves. Another way that the Caucasian race showed their sense of superiority was through the assimilation of other groups. Many Native American tribes were forced into boarding schools where their language was forbidden, converted into Christianity, and forced to embrace western culture. They did not believe the Native culture to be as refined or sophisticated as theirs. This study seems absurd through the 21st century lens however it was widely accepted at the time. Racism still exists today in more subtle ways. The American Dream is supposedly attainable for all yet there are still disproportionate numbers of whites at the top and racial minorities at the bottom in terms of wealth. Success in this country is determined by factors that are biased towards the upper class Caucasian group. It is possible for other races to be successful but there are more barriers to entry. For one, racism makes some racial groups believe that they are not good enough to make it to college or top jobs in a self fulfilling prophecy. It is disheartening to think that the remnants of this study, however absurd they seem, still negatively affect the out groups today. 5) In class we discussed different cases in which scientists have cheated. There are different reasons why these scientists cheated but all are for personal gain or simplifying their studies. The types of cheating are data fabrication, selective exclusion of results, plagiarism, and ghost-writers. We see these same types of cheating in our world today whether it is in our peers, ourselves, our government, or large corporations. Comparing the case of Kammerer and the actions that resulted in the 2008 government bailout, we see two instances where data fabrication occurred. In Kammerers studies he was trying to prove that acquired traits could be passed down through heredity. Today this is known not to be true but Kammerer proved it through cheating in a study with toads and nuptial pads. The nuptial pads were acquired when toads lived and mated in an aquarium. à He claimed that the offspring of these toads who lived in aquariums and acquired the nuptial pads were born with the pads as well. à It was later found that he had actually injected the offspring with ink to imitate the nuptial pads to support his theory of heredity of acquired traits. Kammerer committed suicide and in a last note, he stood by his word that he did not commit fraud but was suspicious of someone who manipulated his study. During the financial crisis many large financial institutions were selling securities that they knew were not good investments to their clients. Selling these securities would give them money in the short term. In the long run though, they lost money and many organizations had to declare bankruptcy. They claimed that the government had to bail them out otherwise the whole countrys finances would collapse, which arguably happened anyway. The average American was defrauded into debt through the credit rating system. The ratings are used by investors to determine the risk of the credit ideally making the costs lowest for both borrowers and lenders. Financial products and investments were given high grades even if they were risky or bad investments. The low interest rates were an incentive for Americans to buy things they simply could not afford through borrowing. Often times the bankers would bet against an investment or loan that they gave a high rating to. This would give them more mo ney if the loan failed. In both cases the motives involved personal gain. In the Kammerer case, he wanted to make a landmark discovery that would put him down in history as one of the greatest scientists. He did not directly have innocent victims but could have misled the public to believe that something was possible that was not. Also, being a scientist, he should have known that future studies would be done involving his theory and would undoubtedly find his theory to be false. In the case of the large financial institutions giving bad loans and falsely rating investments, their incentive was to get more money for themselves regardless of who would suffer. The United States was the victim in this matter causing the greatest recession since the great depression. People lost their savings and homes. The perpetrators were not punished and should have been. I found the latter case to be far more problematic with fewer consequences. The financial institutions did not seem to have any sort of guilt since it was a large umbrella organization and not one single individual as in the former case. Kammamer obviously felt guilty about his actions and took his own life as a result. In that case tangible things were not taken but rather a false idea was put in the minds of the public. In the latter case, many people lost everything they had. Their careless actions caused many people depression in the aftermath. The individuals on Wall Street failed to perform their job and made the American people pay for their mistakes through their losses and in the tax dollars they used in bailing them out.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Why Renault entered into joint venture with Mahindra
Why Renault entered into joint venture with Mahindra Internal Benefits: Joint ventures are formed in quest of managing companys resources in efficient manner. This includes techniques to reducing cost and risk that the firm faces, obtaining scarce resources, obtaining cheap factors of production (land, labour and capital), to include new information and increase the managerial know how so that productivity can be increased and to retain innovative employees of the firm. There are many capital intensive techniques followed by companies in oil and gas exploration, metals processing and mineral extraction. Internal benefit include building companys core strengthsà à Helps in to develop economies of scale by gaining access to other financial resources Joint venture help company to acquire new technologies and customers and gives access to knowledge, skills and better management Competitive Benefits: Joint venture helps companies to restructure their organisational structure. Competitive advantage is achieved by vertical integration or consolidation of the firms. This also helps the firms to have an influence on industry structure and competitors. Responding to the new globalisation trend this approach may help in creation of more effective competitors. Some other benefits are: Joint ventures are helpful in building competitive barriers against the new entrants. They act as a defensive strategy in response to the converging markets Helps in creation of small and competitive units of the firm in various geographical locations It also helps in reducing the time cycle to the market they are involved in Strategic Benefits: Joint ventures help in companies to implement change in their strategic position. This helps in better creation and exploitation of synergies among the two companies. Joint venture facilitate in the transfer of technology and diversification of the firm. Technology transfer helps in building knowledge to expand into key markets It also helps to develop new products and improve productivity by shared expertise and lower costs because indulging in research activities to develop new products can be time-consuming and costly. Small businesses also gain lead-time In the total number of joint venture formed, many were international joint ventures. Many of them were due to the cost involved in the operations. Companies in some industry depend on the technology to reduce costs. Joint ventures are favourable for them because they help them in accumulating money and people to work in short time, with not much time wasted in training and later to develop specialisation in a specific activity. This all leads to reduced exploration and production costs and thereby increase in the profit margins. Joint ventures are not as easy to manage as we are talking about. Sometimes companies are forced to follow a joint venture strategy because of the host countrys business regulations. For example China does not allow outside company to own a majority of domestic business. Mexico requires the companies for any foreign company which is operating in the country to have a joint venture with a domestic company. In addition to government regulations, other reasons f or multinational joint ventures as mentioned above are cutting the costs of doing business, sharing risks with acquiring technological information and management expertise from other companies. Kogut (1988) gave 3 different reasons for the existence of joint ventures. They were: Transaction cost approach: The cost aspect of a transaction in joint ventures helps in explaining joint ventures in terms of market failure for intermediate inputs in the production, various asset specificity, and high uncertainty over specifying and monitoring performance. As inspired by Penroses (1959) work, it is specified and shown in recent development in management research that to one should analyze and develop a firms strategy by focusing on its resources instead of the external environment. Two key behavioural assumptions of TC theory are opportunism and bounded rationality (Williamson 1991a). The transaction theory suggests that if firms with complementary resources try to produce individually then they will have to fight for the scarce resources and acquire them at greater cost. Another major motive behind joint venturing is the possibility of creating Ricardian rents. A Ricardian rent means the presence of scarce resources which generate higher profits than other resource s of the same type. Strategic behaviour approach: A joint venture addresses the difficulties faced by the organisation by providing a superior alignment of incentives through the mutual dedication of resources and by sharing the residual value of the venture. Joint venture is established in a spirit of mutual trust and commitment to its long-term success, the potential threats posed by opportunism and a small-numbers condition can be reduced. Organisational learning approach: Joint Ventures help in organisation learning Williamson (1991b) extends his analysis to strategic alliances, which is said to have the hybrid mode of governance, which are considered to occupy positions between the two ends of the market-hierarchy continuum. These hybrids in joint ventures are said to have stronger incentives and adaptive capabilities than hierarchies, which helps in providing more administrative control than markets. In global industries with globalisation there is higher need for organisational learning. This asks the firm manager to look for global efficiency, which later plays an important role in resource based theory. In a joint-venture setting, there is interaction and communication between the members of different firms. This information flow increases the boundary permeability with respect to the partners resources. This helps in offering an opportunity for learning. A popular example of this is ToyotaGM joint venture, in wh ich both partners had clear learning objectives (Adler and Cole 1993). Another use of joint ventures is to get rid of a business unit, that is, disposal of resources. Nanda and Williamson (1995) have argued that converting the business unit into a joint venture between the parent and buyer helps in selling of the unit. The joint venture operates for several years during which buyer learn about the operations of the unit is going to acquire and slowly resources will be integrated with those of the buyer. By initially running the business as a joint venture, the buyer in benefit of obtaining hands-on management experience and an insiders s view of its operation. Seller also has interest to teach the skill and tricks to buyer of business, since the price that the buyer is willing to pay when buying out the business depends on the joint ventures performance. Firms often go for the local partners in the domestic market in which they want to mark a presence, these are because of the following reasons: Items readily capitalised Human resource needs Government regulations and incentives Market access needs and speed of entry Knowledge needs and learning of new marketing methods A joint venture is formed only when all the organizations involved individually arrive at a positive net benefit calculation. For example, one partner considers the joint venture as an opportunity for learning a new technology while the other uses the venture to further exploit the technology. When two firms have had a great deal of experience of working together, they get to know more about one anothers culture and management style, and adjust their own accordingly thus the two firms are in a better position to explore collaborative opportunities compared to other firms which dont form any alliance with other firms. This all leads to identify ways of complementing joint venture their resources effectively for creating rents. This involves the proper analysis of costs involved in different companies. For example If there exist two oil companies which want to set up a new drilling platform in ocean areas, and neither one has capability to finance the project on its own, so the simple solution to them is to look for joint venture. That way, they share the costs of setup of drilling platform and other projects which later helps them in reducing their individual risk should they find no oil. That is a decided advantage to many business people. A complete study of operation, management and finance has to be done to successfully implement the joint venture. Joint ventures are quite helpful to some companies in gaining access to foreign markets. Sometimes both the firms forget the primary objective of their operation and just form joint venture to come into foreign market. These products bring in the foreign domestic investments in the host country through the firm with which joint venture is formed. So many governments give incentives for joint ventures. Joint ventures are a sometimes used to boost up the creeping sale. This can be the first step in acquisition of a business. It can also be used to act as catalyst for change, which is by bringing in a partner one, can stimulate more entrepreneurial activity in a particular area of a firms business. Joint venture also helps in expansion of customer base by expanding the scope and utilising other firms strength in different geographic market, using its distribution or sales network International joint ventures have also been pushed by international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, who have given incentives by forming policies to eliminate trade barriers and deregulate foreign ownership restrictions and the international flow of capital. This helped in creating a climate in which international investment and partnerships have become increasingly attractive. In new scenario joint ventures have become means by which companies seek to expand profit margins and market share. In addition, regional trade areas such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the European Union (EU), and the Association of South and East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have worked to establish favourable conditions for joint ventures within specific, relatively localized regions. Why Renault entered into joint venture with Mahindra Mahindra? As told by the CEO of Renault Mr. Carlos Ghosn this joint venture was seen to be useful to mark a new step in Renaults global expansion strategy. The joint venture has started the Renault operation in the Indian market which is highly emerging market with respect to automotive sector. As Renault had no experience with the needs of Indian customer joint venture with MM was seen to help to create the first right hand drive version of Logan created to meet the needs of our Indian customers. Renault was also eyeing to mark its presence in Indian market in short period of time, Mahindra and Mahindra gave them that adequate platform. In the beginning of 2005 Renault designers visualized a low-cost car that was to retail for under Euro 5000. The car had quite good features however it looked robust and trustworthy compared to the sleek beauties manufactured by the Japanese and the Koreans. The car became a big hit and enjoyed pampering from buyers in most parts of Europe. Europeans liked the cars no-frill appeal. Renault thought of entering into Indian market, when it analysed the companies it sought upon Mahindra and Mahindra which was the main force behind the Tata Group. Mahindra and Mahindra helped Tata Motors for over ten years helping them build the modern day passenger vehicle. Mahindra also in seeing the future prospects of snatching the opportunity and mark its presence in Indian market started working in unison with Renault and started building and selling the Logan in India. Both Mahindra and Renault shared the profit of gaining knowledge and expertise. MM would get all important expertise needed to build monocoque or unitary construction. Renault, on the other hand, would gain direct knowledge of the cost-effective supplier base that Mahindra enjoyed in India. A labour-intensive car plant was established as against a fully automated one to analyze the quality and cost-effective work force available in India. The two groups concluded a framework agreement for setting up a joint venture in India with Mahindra retaining a 51 per cent share and Renault 49 per cent. The JV will be called Mahindra Renault Ltd. The estimated project amount was 125 million Euros. With other European automotive counterparties like Fiat and Skoda had little presence this venture was also seen a major competition to them. Mahindra did a customer research in Logan segment and found strong response for this C-segment car. Renault was looking for major global expansion; along with India it was also starting its operations in Romania, Russia, Morocco, Colombia and Iran. Renault was looking for a long term relationship with Mahindra and Mahindra and was looking for greater prospects in coming years of 2010 to 2012. Renault chose Mahindra and Mahindra because of the following reasons: Mahindra Group a US $ 2.5 billion company is the market leader in multi-utility vehicles and tractors in India. Mahindra and Mahindra had 55 years of manufacturing experience MM had built its high network of distributors and suppliers in India efficiently Mahindra group had built a strong base in technology, engineering, marketing and finance (Mahindra intertrade and MM financial services Ltd.). It also has a significant presence in key sectors of the Indian economy High presence in automotive components, information technology telecom (Mahindra British Telecom), and infrastructure development (Mahindra GESCO, Mahindra Holidays Resorts India Ltd.) Mahindra had a reputation of providing TATA Motors the platform to harness the automotive growth in India MM had not much presence in Sedan segment i.e. C-segment so Renault had no fears of having conflicts of interest Mahindra as a brand was a trusted brand in India. With the leverage of Mahindra as a brand Renault was also leveraging its own brand in Logan, as the joint venture was called Mahindra-Renault The transfer of knowledge and technology was mutually beneficial for Renault and Mahindra, it was good symbiotic relationship
Monday, August 19, 2019
The Benefits of Globalization Essay -- Outsourcing, Offshoring, Free T
Frequently, people are unclear of exactly what Globalization means. Globalization is the tendency of the world's economies to act as a single interdependent economy. It can be described as the increased movement of people, knowledge, ideas, goods and money across national borders to make the world more unified in a sense. Globalization is often thought of in economic terms but as we know there are other components with this idea like, economics, and cultures. There is a huge debate of whether or not globalization is positive or negative. Some view globalization as being inevitable and key to our economic future. It has the potential of making societies richer through trade, and creates knowledge and understanding to people around the world. On the other side, people believe it increases inequality within and between nations. I believe that globalization will only advance our world and make us more unified. The world's economic system is just one factor in globalization. Over the past two centuries, economic activity has become more global and international trade has becom...
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Improving Management Styles Essay -- essays research papers
Improving Management Styles and Their Function à à à à à In the article When the Problem is Management, author Lawrence Sawyer takes a look at the different styles that managers have in their practice, how they can better perform their functions and how they relate to the four basic functions of management. As an internal auditor, Mr. Sawyer provides some insight to these managers in helping them and their departments make better use of the tools they have and points out what basic function they are violating. This article and its basic points relate directly to the assigned 1st weekââ¬â¢s reading in our Management 330 textbook and is an excellent example in how to relate the reading to a real life example. Ways to improve oneââ¬â¢s own organization or their specific department in their own organization can be taken and applied as well, as this article is an excellent review on the functions of management and how they put their practices into effect. à à à à à In the article, Mr. Sawyer recalls many experiences he has had in dealing with managers of different organizations and how he has found that whatever flaws was found could be directly related to the four basic functions of management, which are planning, organizing, directing and controlling. Planning is described as the function preceding all other functions and allows a smooth and proper flow through the remaining functions by establishing objectives and goals and following procedures and rules that have been set. An excellent example was given of an audit performed for a company where a managerââ¬â¢s practice in governing his engineerââ¬â¢s time schedule was scrutinized. The manager was made to realize from his own work how he had three years of planned backlog. This was seen and accepted by the à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à Management Functions 3 manager and corrective action was taken to regain control of the tasks at hand. Better planning practices were implemented to establish priorities and cut completion time expectations for his engineers. Good organization practices are described more as a counter to failure than a guarantee for success. Responsibility, auth... ...ecisions that are very routine often consume much time in getting supervisory approval and would be very easy to delegate to the agents responsibility. Also, upper level management be surprised at how interesting it would be to an ordinary agent to learn about how forecasting works and the outcomes of other reports in our department. In conclusion, Lawrence Sawyerââ¬â¢s assessment of the importance of the four basic functions of management and the different styles managers have in implementing them was very informative. Anyone should be able to take this evaluation and better improve their own personal management habits and styles and see how they can be applied to their surrounding work environment. à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à Management Functions 6 Resources Sawyer, Lawrence B. (1998, August). When the problem is management. Internal Auditor Vol. 55 Issue 4, p33, 6p. [EBSCOhost]. University of Phoenix Online Collection. Available: http://www.apollolibrary.com/srp/ubm/mgt330.asp: (2002, August 5).
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Features of bluetooth technology Essay
The logo for Bluetooth is based on Runes surrounding the legend of Harald Bluetooth. Bluetooth the technology is based on communications central to manââ¬â¢s own personal space. Fundamentally Bluetooth operates within the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band at 2. 4 GHz. It is a short-range wireless communication standard defined as cable replacement for a Personal Area Network (PAN) (see ââ¬Å"Bluetoothâ⬠. Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge, pp. 87-94). Figure 1 is the Bluetooth Logo. A cable replacement standard has been defined because cables limit mobility of the consumer; they are cumbersome to carry around, are easily lost or broken. Often connectors are prone to difficult to diagnose failures; or are proprietary. To counteract these limitations Bluetooth is designed to be light and portable. It can be embedded to take the riggers of physical knocks and shocks. It includes standards and protocols to make it mobile, robust, reliable and not limited to one manufacturer (see ââ¬Å"Bluetoothâ⬠. Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge, pp. 87-94). The operating band also fits the goals of Bluetooth, imposing requirements as a cable replacement. The cost needs to be comparable with cable. Reductions can be achieved by operating in the licence free 2. 4 GHz ISM band, keeping backward compatibility wherever possible lowers the cost of ownership by avoiding upgrades and having a relaxed radio specification enables single chip integrated circuit solutions. It also needs to be as reliable and resilient as cable and cope with errors and degradation caused by interference. For mobile devices it must be compact, lightweight, low power and easy to use (see ââ¬Å"Bluetoothâ⬠. Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge, pp. 87-94). A. 1 Frequency Hopping We have addressed the reasons for the Bluetooth without delving into the ââ¬Ënuts and boltsââ¬â¢ of the technology to discover how it operates. For the majority of countries the ISM band used by Bluetooth is available from 2. 40-2. 4835 GHz, although some countries impose restrictions. In this band Bluetooth uses Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) techniques in order to improve its immunity from interference (see J. Bray and C. F. Sturman, Bluetooth: Connect Without Cablesâ⬠, Prentice Hall). In unrestricted countries the radios hop in pseudo random sequences around all available channels, this equates to 79 RF channels with a channel spacing of 1 MHz. Starting at a base frequency of 2402 MHz then the frequency of the channels, f, can be expressed as: f =2402 + n MHz where, n, is the channel number with an integer value in the range of 0 to 78. In restricted countries a limited frequency hopping schemes with just 23 channels is used and is catered for in the Bluetooth specification. Both hopping schemes have a 1 MHz channel spacing making it possible to design a simple radio interface whereby the baseband only has to specify a channel number and the radio multiplies this up to the appropriate frequency offset (see J. Bray and C. F. Sturman, Bluetooth: Connect Without Cablesâ⬠, Prentice Hall). In this FHSS scheme there are 1600 hops per second, which is a hop every 625 à µs. Part of this hop timing is taken up by the guard time of 220 à µs allowing the synthesizer time to settle. The frequency hopping implements time division multiplexing as shown in Figure 2. The basis of the scheme has the Master device transmitting in the first 625 us slot, k, and here the Slave receives. In the next slot k = 1 the Slave is permitted to transmit and the master listens (see J.Bray and C. F. Sturman, Bluetooth: Connect Without Cablesâ⬠, Prentice Hall). Figure 2: Frequency Hopping, master and slave interact on corresponding slots The radio must be able to retune and stabilise on a new frequency within tight time constraints. This is pushed further when establishing a connection; the hop rate can be shortened to every 312. 5 us. As the radios are constantly hopping to different radio channels, this ensures that packets affected by interference on one channel can be retransmitted on a different frequency channel. To further enhance resilience both ARQ (Automatic Repeat reQuest) and FEC (Forward Error Correction) form part of the specification (see J. Bray and C. F. Sturman, Bluetooth: Connect Without Cablesâ⬠, Prentice Hall). One drawback with the normal hop sequence is the time taken for production testing. Bluetooth ensures adequate frequency coverage with a test sequence allowing the radios to be tested at a faster rate (see J. Bray and C. F. Sturman, Bluetooth: Connect Without Cablesâ⬠, Prentice Hall).
Invent School Program Essay
I. Introduction Some students from Bansud National Highschool ââ¬â Regional Science Highschool for Region IV-B MIMAROPA with other schoolââ¬â¢s representative from different towns in Mindoro joined a seminar held on 16-17th day of April 2013 at Filipiniana Hotel Convention Hall Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro. The seminar is about on how to make a Science Investigatory Project and some topics regarding in research fields. The representative of Department of Science and Technology ââ¬â Technology Application and Promotion Institute (DOST ââ¬â TAPI) organized a seminar for us. The speakers for the seminar are Dr. George M. Colorado, Ms. Teresita O. De Vera, and others. In our two-day seminar the topics they discussed is about ââ¬Å"Creativityâ⬠, â⬠Creative, Perceptive, and Inventive Thinkingâ⬠, ââ¬Å"Ideation tools and Techniquesâ⬠, ââ¬Å"Creative Problem Solving Processâ⬠, ââ¬Å"Invention Developmentâ⬠, ââ¬Å"Prior Art Searchâ⬠, an d ââ¬Å"Intelectual Property Rights.â⬠II. Knowledge / Learning Acquired I have knowledge on making a Science Investigatory Project because when I was on 5th grade level I joined a contest regarding on it. I also have knowledge in research fields because we have a subject about in our class about it. Based on what I learned from the seminar It is important to always ask yourself, train to think always so that your mind can easily perceive the things around our surroundings to come up a novel invention. I also learned from the speakers the difference of an invention and not. The most emphasized thing in the seminar is how to think and invent a creative Science Investigatory Project. III. Observation During our seminar I observed that our speakers have enough knowledge about the topic they are discussing. I also observed that they have freebies for us to participate in their discussion and question and answer portion. I observed that all students are interested to the topic they discussed and participated with the speakers attentively and most of all listened enough to learn. IV. Recommendations/ Suggestions I suggest that they provide a hand outs for all the participants of the seminar so that the participants or all students have notes to be compile and use it while the seminar is going on so that they donââ¬â¢t need to copy instead they will focused on listening to the speaker.
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