Importance of Advertising for Firms in Monopolistic Competition Essay

Importance of Advertising for Firms in Monopolistic Competition - Essay Example This paper illustrates that advertising is an important feature of firms that sell differentiated products. Firms found in a monopolistic competition, oligopoly and at times even monopoly market structure practice advertising. Monopolistic competition is a market structure with a large number of firms making a similar product. However, each firm’s product is differentiated from its competitors and hence is unique. An example of such a market structure is fast-food restaurants. Although these fast-food restaurants such as Hardee’s, McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Wendy’s and KFC provide the same product, that is, fast-food, however, each of their products has some differentiation which makes it unique from their competitors. An oligopoly is a market dominated by a few large firms. An example of an oligopoly market structure is of cigarettes. Just like monopolistic competition firms in an oligopoly also have differentiated products. Due to this product diff erentiation, these firms are able to attract customers. Advertising is then done to create brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is the faithfulness of customers to a particular brand expressed through repeated purchases from that brand without coming into the market pressure generated by its competitors. As a result, firms spend heavily on their advertising campaign so that customers stick to their brand and are not won over by their competitors’ brands. Although advertising is necessary to create brand loyalty much also depends on the nature of the product and the elasticity of demand for the product.... However, firms are profit maximizing. Firms advertise because they want to increase the demand for their product and hence their profits. When firms advertise just to increase the demand for its own product then it might hurt the rivals. A firm may use advertising to differentiate its product from its competitors. For example in the case of the fast-food restaurant industry Hardee’s may advertise a different type of burger which is not produced by the other competitors. Such advertising would help Hardee’s to attract customers not only outside the fast-food market but also existing customers of its competitors. This example clearly shows that if Hardee’s is able to advertise its new burger successfully then it will be able to increase the demand for its product leading to higher revenues that will result in a greater profit. Advertising is also done to create barriers to entry so that more firms cannot enter the market and find it hard to compete. For example an existing firm like Coca Cola will advertise to increase its customer base in the soft drink market. Through its advertising campaigns Coca Cola will be able to create brand loyalty. If a new firm wants to enter the soft drink market it would find it very hard to attract customers because firms like Coca Cola have already captured the market and created brand loyalty amongst their customers. Advertising also helps to make the demand for a product relatively inelastic. Once the demand is inelastic the customers buy the firm’s product even when the price of the product rises. A benefit of this inelasticity to the firm is that even if the business is not doing well and profits are low the firm can still generate greater profits by charging its customers a

Database Security for Electronics Ltd Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Database Security for Electronics Ltd - Essay Example Database security is the process of protecting the files stored in the database from any malicious attempts of viewing the data or modifying the data (Ramakrishnan & Gehrke, 2003, p 157). The standard language that is used for making an interactive query from and, updating the databases as Microsoft SQL server is known as the Structure Query Language (SQL). This paper tries to analyze the potential issues that are arising from having a database server online. Securities in the software applications are very significant in all the organization that has databases. An SQL injection attack is one of the identified potential issues that might arise from having the databases online. SQL injection attack is a type of an attack that comes from what the user has inputted, and is not well checked to find if the input is valid. SQL Injection attack enables the external users to view information from the database. In other systems that are well designed, it will only include the information that is available to the public. While in a system which is poorly designed, this would only allow the external users in discovering other people’s password (Basta & Zgola, 2012, p 167). The objective of the SQL injection attack is to fool a database system to a running malicious code that will reveal the sensitive data or information or else it may compromise the whole server. SQL injection attacks are of two types; there are the first-order attacks, and the second-order attacks. The first-order attacks happens when the attacker attempts to receive an immediate desired result, this can be by direct response coming from the application that is being interacted to, or it may be some other response mechanisms, for example emails. While the second-order attacks takes place when the attacker attempts to inject some of the data that are going to reside in the database, although the payload will not be activated immediately. Most websites are commonly used in mounting the attack on the database (Cherry, 2011, pg 201). For example, the below is an example for a typical SQL statement that can be used to mount an attack on the website. SELECT ProductName, Unit Price, QuantityperUnit FROM Products WHERE ProductName LIKE ‘F%’ The above SQL statement tries to select the name of the product, the price per unit, and the unit per quantity from where the products are stored where the ProductName must start with a letter F (ProductName LIKE ‘F%’). The main aim of the attackers in database is to make sure that they inject their own SQL into a statement that the application may use when querying the database. For the above SQL statement, just in any case the query was generated from the website; the user must therefore insert the letter ‘F’ as the query. However, if a server side code inserts a user input directly in an SQL statement, the SQL statement may look like this, but it is only fine if the data that is inputted is valid. String sql = â€Å"SELECT ProductName, Unitprice, QuantityPerUnit â€Å"+ â€Å"FROM Products† + WHERE ProductName LIKE ‘†+ search, Text + â€Å"%’; SQL injection attack damages SQL injection attacks have been somehow limited concerning the risks that are associated with unintended disclosure of the data. Today SQL injection has evolved, and it has become the preferred method and, processes that are used by the hackers in breaching well-liked websites. It has also inserted a malware websites. SQL injections alternatively, may

Theoretical Approaches to Perception Processes

Theoretical Approaches to Perception Processes Cognitive psychologists differ in their views on the processes involved in perception. Outline two theoretical approaches to perception and provide empirical support for each. Introduction Explanations of perception seek to explain and better understand the process that facilitates the transformation of sensory information from the environment into the experience of objects, sounds, and movement. One of the most established fields of psychological research, studies in perception range from basic recognition of shape, colour, and form, to the more complex relationship between, motion, attention and performance (Eysenck, 2005). In the early 1900’s, a group of psychologists sought to show how people organize fields of information during perception, memory, and thought (eg: Duncker, 1945; Koffka, 1935; Kohler, 1940; J. M. Mandler G. Mandler, 1964; Wertheimer, 1945/ 1982. In Barsalou, 1992). Since then, the distinctions between the work of cognitive and perception psychologists have become less obvious, with cognitive and behavioural approaches increasingly being used in the effort to understand the complex process of visual perception. As experimental approaches ha ve brought about more refined empirical techniques, a greater number of theories have developed in order to help explain the phenomenon. This essay focuses on James Gibson’s theory that perception and action are very closely related. Gibson first put forward this theory more than fifty years ago (Eysenck, 2005). The second theory under discussion is the Constructivist approach, which posits that experience formed in memory assist the observer in making informed judgements about the size, shape, form, etc of an object. Gibson (1979) first brought into discussion the term ‘direct perception’ relating to the idea that we pick up enough information from the visual environment to form a conscious version of what we see and that we do not need to use higher levels of cognitive processing in order to understand the visual world (Cardwell et al, 2004). Part of Gibson’s theory maintained that perception depends upon the existence of a number of cues which inform the brain about the size, shape, and texture of objects, and the distance away from the observer that they lie. Gibson’s work is unique as he based his findings on experiments conducted outside of laboratory conditions although still very much within a controlled environment with measurable results. Part of Gibson’s work has helped develop new technological features at airports to help pilots develop their depth perception, while the application of his flow patterns idea has been incorporated into the constructions of roundabouts to create the illusion for drivers that they are accelerating on their approach and thus making them slow down (Cardwell et al, 2004). The applicability of these theories to real-life situations increases their relevance and causes them to be an attractive explanation as to how we perceive our visual environment. Gibson (1979) expounded upon what he meant by ‘direct’: â€Å"So when I assert that perception of the environment is direct, I mean that it is not  mediated by retinal pictures, neural pictures, or mental pictures. Direct perception is the activity of getting information from the ambient array of light. I call this a process of information pickup that involves the exploratory activity of looking around, getting around, and looking at things. (1979, p.147) Gibson posited that it was in the nature of light as an optic ray that facilitated our understanding of objects and material reality. Gibson’s studies of observation he claimed were founded upon his experiences in World War II. When carrying out aviation experiments, Gibson concluded that the laboratory approach to the study of depth perception could not be suited to improving a pilots ability to land an airplane, and that it was necessary to study perception outdoors into the natural environment. According to Goldstein (1981, p.191), in Gibson‘s ‘ground theory’ visual space ‘is defined not by an object or an array of objects in the air (as occurs for depth cues such as interposition, relative size, etc.) but rather is defined by the ground, a continuous surface or array of adjoining surfaces.’ Gibson’s texture gradient suggests that there exists a rate of change in texture density. For example, a the gaps in a rail track appear to get closer together the greater the distance over which they are perceived (Eysenck, 2005). Gibson measured his findings in real life situations of perception where the observer is not stationary in a laboratory and ‘observing’ rather, Gibson believed in the importance of the observer being active, constantly moving their eyes, head and body in relation to the environment (Goldstein, 1981). Gibson’s work has been continuously investigated by other researchers who have been keen to establish its strengths and weaknesses. For example, Greenberg and Donnell (1972) found that the ‘weakness of stripes or straight contours does have some touch points in research on infant and adult perception.’ (In Pick and Gibson, 1979, p.71). While very young infants preferred to look at checks over stripes (Greenberg and Donnell, 1972), MacKay and Jeffreys (1973) recorded that adults looking at parallel lines in contrast with lines that had corners or breaks in them, showed more visually evoked potential for the checked an broken lines, but was relatively small for the parallel lines (Ibid). Whereas Mayzner and Habinek (1976) found in tachistoscopic experiments that the ‘threshold is much lower for detecting contours that change in direction than it is for detecting those that do not’ ( Mayzner Habinek, 1976. In Pick and Gibson, 1979, p.71). These forms of empirical research have dated well as they highlight basic dichotomies between shapes and forms and how they are perceived by the human eye and thus translated as information by the brain. There is not much scope for disproving Gibson’s theories rather, the challenge of his work lies in whether his explanations of perception are enough to explain the complexity of understanding the material world. Gibson also made an insightful point as to the nature of research and theory of perception that ‘the starting point of perceptual research and theory depends critically on the language used to describe the information available for perception’ (Carlson, 1997, p.76), and that psychologists are thus apt to partially self-define the objectives and results of their own experiments. In ostensible contrast to Gibson’s work, the Constructivist approach places less emphasis on the nature of the visual stimulus itself and focuses on the implications of stored memories (Cardwell et al, 2004). Past experience thus shapes and informs present experience. Gibson’s idea that perception is founded upon cues provided by the object itself is reversed in this approach to understanding perception, where perception is effectively constructed by the memory. Gregory expounded upon Gibson’s theory by experimenting with the idea that visual stimuli are basic ‘starting points’ upon which the observer makes informed guesses about their meaning (Cardwell et al, 2004). Constructivist theory has received much empirical support, beginning in the early 20th century with the work of Tichener (1914). Boring (1946) worked with, and altered these experiments, to produce the well-known 1941 Holway and Boring experiment. Here, participants observed the size of a disk, from varied distances. Holway and Boring sought to reduce the number of distance cues available to participants, and found that the more that cues â€Å"reduced†, the poorer the size perceptions recorded. Boring concluded that perception needed a cores stimulus, and a mediating context informed by cues. Size perception thus relies upon a perceived distance that allows the observer to make informed judgements. In such laboratory experiments there exists the hypothesis that certain illusions persist in our perception of the world this was a crucial element of the Constructivist theory. Gibson criticised the empirical research for these approaches, highlighting their artificiality and inapplicability to real-life. Furthermore, if perception is analogous to our making judgements and decisions this would not explain how precise perception is ie: if Constructivist theory is correct then we would make many more mistakes in how we perceive the world. To conclude, neither approach is meant to be an alternative to the other rather they are used in conjunction with each other, and the type of processing employed will depend on the type of visual stimulus present in front of the observer. In her discussion about the relevance and scope of cognitive theory, Disessa quotes Marton who has heavily criticised the efforts of cognitive science to explain human experience (Disessa, 1993). Disessa goes on to say that ‘whether for systematic or accidental reasons, cognitive science has not done particularly well at illuminating the structure of experience.’ (1993, p.261). If cognitive approaches are to ultimately succeed, then they need to focus more on explaining consciousness itself (Barsalou, 1992), rather than the mechanisms which define consciousness. Other explanations have attempted to identify the behavioural aspects of sensory experience which indirectly inform the observer as to the nature of their experience. For exam ple, Ludwig (1999) suggests that as well as being able to perceive shapes visually and through touch, we also gain information through other sensory modes. He gives the example of knowing through smelling the scent of a mango that the fruit of the smell’s origin is round; here, shape is not perceived by a visual judgement, but is inferred from ‘the character of ones sensory experience and collateral information that an object of a certain shape caused it.’ (Ludwig, 1999, p. 29). There will no doubt continue to be variations and expansions upon the work of Gibson, and of the older constructivist theories yet the fundamental precepts of each theory remain as integral to the study of perception as they did over fifty years ago. The relationship between the static or stationary observer and the material world will ultimately rely upon the distance, texture, and shape of the perceived object, while the degree to which perception relies upon past experience is yet to be fully understood. References Barsalou, L.W. (1992) Cognitive Psychology: An Overview for Cognitive Scientists. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Boring, E. G. (1946). Perception of objects. American Journal of Physics, 14, 99-107. Cardwell, M; Clark, L; and Meldrum, C. (2004) Psychology. London: Collins. Carlson, R.A. (1997) Experienced Cognition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Disessa, AA. (1993) Cognitive Responses. Cognition and Instruction, vol 10. Issue: 3, p.261. Eysenck, M.W. Keane, M.T. (2005). Cognitive Psychology: A Student’s Handbook, (5th Ed) Hove: Psychology Press. Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Goldstein, E.B. (1981) The Ecology of J. J. Gibsons Perception. Leonardo, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 191-195. Holway, A. H., Boring, E. G. (1941). Determinants of apparent visual size with distance variant. American Journal of Psychology, 54, 21-37. Ludwig, K. (1996). Shape Properties and Perception. Philosophical Issues, Vol. 7, pp. 325-350. Pick, A.D, and Gibson, E.J. (1979) Perception and Its Development: A Tribute to Eleanor J. Gibson. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Titchener, E. B. (1914). A textbook of psychology. New York: Macmillan.

jeff dahmer :: essays research papers

It's the first week of February and jury selection has begun. Nearly 450 press passes have been distributed to about 100 media outlets from around the world -- from Spain to England to Akron, Ohio. Even when psychologist Judith Becker recounts his lonely and sometimes tragic childhood, Dahmer doesn't show a moist eye. But Becker's anecdotes of the killer's pathetic youth seem to move the audience. She tells of how Dahmer, as a young boy, found a snake and took it to his garage to keep as a pet. The snake, though, wound itself around the spokes of Dahmer's bike and once he went for a ride, the new-found pet was killed. Becker says Dahmer wondered why, of all places, the snake had to go into the spokes and lose its life. A wave of sympathy for the boy Dahmer seems to pass over the spectator section. The audience is snapped out of any sympathetic mindset when the psychologist goes on to tell how young Jeffrey encouraged a childhood friend to put his hand in a hornet's nest. There are only ladybugs in there, Dahmer assured the boy. The friend did what he was told by Dahmer and, of course. was stung. The anecdote prompts Channel 12 reporter Angle Moreschi to let out the loudest guffaw of the courtroom. Even the families of the victims who pack the spectator seats seemed moved by Dahmer's childhood memories, as told by the psychologist. Their sympathy isn't for the killer, though, but for his parents. At day's end, many of them walk up to the Dahmers and talk briefly. As they leave, some of the victims' relatives grab Mr. and Mrs. Dahmer and hug. Lionel and Shari Dahmer sit in the back row, the husband in the aisle seat. They often hold hands during the trial; Mrs. Dahmer, though, sometimes takes notes. For what? Who knows. One afternoon, the defendant's stepmother decides to do her nails and it's enough of a routine change that television cameras capture the "event." The Dahmers try their best to avoid contact with the media and, surprisingly, the reporters oblige: Nobody hounds them for comment. "You could just see how pained his father felt about this," observes one reporter of Lionel Dahmer. While being taken from his cell to the courtroom each day, Dahmer says little to his escorts, if anything. In time, the deputies begin to carry on as if the prisoner is oblivious to their presence.

Human rights issue

Patrick Henry once said â€Å"Give me liberty or give me death. † Most people agree with what he said because freedom is what makes life worth living. People should have certain freedoms no matter what country they live in. In the book Enrique's Journey it shows how people in Latin America are often denied the right to travel which is also a problem in America and this can cause people to travel dangerously and illegally. People have the right to travel and when they are denied this right it can cause complete chaos which is demonstrated in this book.This problem is very serious in he country of Mexico and in America we are often denied this right in a unique way. All throughout America and Central American countries like Mexico, because people face this human rights issue it causes them to be separated from their families and their loved ones. In Enrique's Journey because Enrique is legally not allowed to travel to America he is unable to see his mother. He misses her deeply and because he does not get to see her for years it causes him deep emotional damage and it even leads to him doing drugs and feeling unloved.Unfortunately this happens to thousands of kids and even adults in both Mexico and America. Not only does this cause emotional damage but it even can lead to very difficult financial hard ships for families. Some people want to get a Job in America or another area and because they are denied the right to travel they can't achieve their goals. Enrique's mother has trouble making enough money because she is an immigrant and therefore she does not want to get caught so she can only accept low paying low profile Jobs.It's sad enough that families have to deal with these emotional struggles as well as financial struggles but what is often even worse than these things is the physical torture and dangers of trying to travel illegally. Most kids in Mexico and other countries in the area have to travel by physically grasping onto high speed trains and this is extremely dangerous. Far too many times young kids are too weak to hold on and they are sucked under the train and killed or lose limbs. But the difficulties do not stop there.These kids are often chased by police and even worse gang members. Hundreds of kids every day are beaten, mugged, killed, raped, or very sadly experience all of these horrific events. Most of these struggles would be never heard of if only these people weren't denied the right to travel. Just to make things worse or these helpless people they also face social anxiety and loneliness because they are always afraid of being physically harmed by other people and because they cant be found by the police or they will be deported back to wherever they came from.Also, because they cannot be noticed or stand out they often can't get a Job because it is too risky for them so instead they beg for money. Because of this many kids die of starvation or become very sick or ill. Not only do they face these problems li ke disease but because they become weak and are often alone they become more vulnerable to gang members and being killed or mugged. But if these people were just able to freely travel they would not experience these horrific scenarios and events.Being denied your human right to travel is a problem in many countries throughout the world but it's a huge problem in Mexico and other central and southern American countries and even in America. It causes hopeless people to lose Many people think it is better off for people to not be allowed to travel to other countries and for their traveling rights to be denied but if they knew what thousands of people go through every year Just to see their family and make life better for themselves, maybe their view would change.

Microeconomics and the Laws of Supply and Demand Simulation Essay

Based on Webpedia (2014), microeconomics is the interaction and behavior of individual components within an economic system. About the flip side, yet, he claims that macroeconomics examines the market as an aggregate. While microeconomics has a slim viewpoint of the market, macroeconomics examines the market from a wide standpoint. In the University of Phoenix simulation (n.d), for instance, Atlantis metropolis is a little and pleasant town with sufficient infrastructure, rendering it acceptable to custom. This is often considered as the macroeconomic view of the town because the investigation covers a wide spectrum. The simulation more signifies that there exists a low-traffic and hardly any pollution and low-crime rate. This confirms a more narrow outlook of the metropolis, looking at individual elements of the city which makes it conducive living environment. Acceptable infrastructure can be a generalized notion making it a macroeconomic view of the town. The reference of the parks and home narrows down the area into two sublets of infrastructure, in other words, home and recreational services. A change to the right of the supply curve would suggest that there’s been a subsequent rise in the offer of 2-bedroom flats. This was due to a growth in demand impacted by the truth that a brand new firm, Lintech, moved to the town, and there was consequently a population increase along with a subsequent boost in demand of 2-bedroom flats. The entry of new residents had an in earnings, which produced them favor detached houses. Goodlife went farther and converted 400 flats from their 3200 into condos. Equilibrium is the level where the demand and provide curve fulfill in the center. The equilibrium value was initially at $1050 , along with the amount provided was 2000 flat units. A change to the proper in the demand curve, occasioned by means of a growth in populace from Lintech, raises the cost of the models supply staying persistent. W hen it comes to decision making, it’ll be wise for the provider to raise the supply. Yet, change in the tastes of the customers occasioned by means of a rise in income amounts meant demand would fall. A  reduction in need of the 2-bedroom flats on account of modify in tastes lead into a drop in supply, and thus, the demand and also the offer curves would switch to the left. The shift in provide were more compared to the shift in-demand, for instance, it might imply that there will be a deficit in the equilibrium rental fee significance that supply is going to be lower than what’s needed. Meaning, the business will need to offer fewer flat units compared to the potential client is prepared to invest to them. The rental rate would need to increase therefore the amount needed reduces until there exists a decrease in deficit. This technique goes on until a brand new equilibrium point is achieved. These forces are at the mercy of different variables to the side of both consumer and provider. For instance, a growth in demand will likely be at the mercy of not only cost, but additionally taste and tastes, the income degree of the customer marketplace and also the size of the marketplace. Growth of supply can be impacted by several other variables for example cost of associated items, dimension of populace and others. In the telephone sector, for instance, the desire is principally geared by pricing, but other variables should be placed into play. Why really would one consider purchasing an iPhone when it’s deemed really pricey? It really is just since the Apple telephone organization has arch out a market in supplying outstanding quality telephones which are user-friendly. Hence it is imperative to think about the marketplace tendencies to ensure one’s merchandises are almost always useful. Microeconomics, as mentioned before, deals and intermingles together with the individual models of the market. In the real-estate business, microeconomics will take a look in the many living conditions of distinct portions of the town and ascertain who dwells there. Microeconomics might assess the person facets which could change an industry, for instance, growth in income, populace designs and client preferences in real-estate. An rich place may have fewer lodging components directly proportionate to the few who make high wages, and not as wealthy places could have more folks because of the exceptionally affordable housing components. Equilibrium in essence will be a culmination of cost and amount ascertained in the micro-level. Price elasticity of demand stems from customer’s responsiveness or sensitivity to changes in price (Colander, n.d, ). In the simulation, a rise in cost caused a reduction in the need of flats. The simulation  advocated the purchase price ought to be optimized to attain maximum gains, while in exactly the same time making sure the pricing would be advantageous to the client. That is the stage of equilibrium. Costs above this level would result in excess and costs beneath would cause a deficit. The simulation continues to be powerful in establishing the potency of the powers of demand and supply. In the simulation, a rise in cost caused a reduction in the need of flats. The simulation advocated the purchase price ought to be optimized to attain maximum gains, while in exactly the same time making sure the pricing would be advantageous to the client. That is the stage of equilibrium. Costs above this level would result in excess and costs beneath would cause a deficit. The simulation continues to be powerful in establishing the potency of the powers of demand and supply. References Colander, D. C. (n.d). Microeconomics ninth edition (9th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database PRICE ELASTICITY OF DEMAND. (2014). In Webpedia. Retrieved from http://www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/awb_nav.pl?s=wpd&c=dsp&k=price+elasticity+of+demand University of Phoenix. (n.d). Applying Supply and Demand Concepts [Multimedia]. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, ECO365 website.