Strategic marketing management for Boots in the UK

Strategic marketing management for Boots in the UK Boots is a leading UK retailer, selling health and beauty products through its chain of Boots the Chemists stores. Around half the Boots brand products are developed and manufactured by the company. In this case the company is in control of the entire supply chain. From its foundation in 1849 Boots has always believed in and practiced what is today known as Corporate Social Responsibility. The company is proud of this heritage and its strong sense of social responsibility. Today it is reflected in values and behaviours and made explicit in the company statement of business purpose. We seek to respond to the legitimate concerns of our stakeholders whether they be in the marketplace, the workplace, the communities in which we operate or the environment that affects us all. Marketing Strategy Options. Boots is a member of Alliance Boots, an international pharmacy-led health and beauty group. Our purpose is to help our customers look and feel better than they ever thought possible. Our customers are at the heart of our business. Were committed to providing exceptional customer and patient care, be the first choice for pharmacy and healthcare, offer innovative products only at Boots, with great value our customers love. Our people are our strength and they tell us that Boots is a great place to work. We are always be the employer of choice, attracting and retaining the most talented and passionate people.The strategy is to focus on its two core business activities of pharmacy led health and beauty retailing and pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution, while increasingly developing and internationalising our product brands to create a third dimension. growing the core businesses in existing markets,continuing to deliver productivity improvements and other cost savings,pursuing growth opportunities in selective new high growth markets and launching our product brands in new markets. This strategy is underpinned by our continue focus on patient or customer needs and services selective partnerships and our strong financial diciplines.we are commited to providing exceptional customer and patient care be the first choice for pharmacy and healthcare offer innovative products only at Boots,with great va lue our customer love. Pharmacy-led health and beauty strategy : Boots is the largest pharmacy chain in Europe with an excellent reputation for differentiated health and beauty products and customer care.Our strategy is to develop Boots into the worlds leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retail brand,focused on helping people look and feel their best. The key steps we are taking in the uk to execute our strategy are:- -Making Boots more convenient and accessible for our customers. -Developing our people to be at their very best for our customer -Improving our customer in store shopping experience -creating a compelling multi-channel health and wellbeing consumer offering -Increasingly differentiating our product offering -Continuing to provide customers with excellent value -Opening new stores in markets where Boots is already well established -Developing new store in markets where Boots is already well established -Developing country specific Boots branded trading formats to meet local needs. Marketing strategies options: Every marketing strategy is unique, but if we abstract from the individualizing details, each can be reduced into a generic marketing strategy. A brief description of the most common categorizing schemes is presented below, Strategies based on market dominance In this scheme, firms are classified based on their market share or dominance of an industry. There are a number of ways of categorizing these generic strategies. Typically there are four types of market dominance strategies: Leader Niche Follower Challenger Porter generic strategies: Michael Porter assessed strategy on the dimensions of strategic scope and strategic strength. Strategic scope refers to the breadth of market penetration while strategic strength refers to the firms sustainable competitive advantage. He felt three types were important: Market segmentation Product differentiation Cost leadership Innovation strategies:- This deal with the firms rate of new product development and business model innovation. It asks whether the company is on the cutting edge of technology and business innovation. There are three types: Close followers Late followers Pioneers Growth strategies:- In this scheme we ask the question, how should the firm grow? There are a number of different ways of answering that question, but the most common gives four answers: Diversification Intensification Vertical integration Horizontal integration Aggressiveness strategies: This asks whether a firm should grow or not, and if so, how fast. One scheme divides strategies into: Holding Building Harvesting Warfare based strategies: This scheme draws parallels between marketing strategies and military strategies. There are many types of marketing warfare strategies, but they can be grouped into: Flanking marketing warfare Defensive marketing warfare strategies Offensive marketing warfare strategies Keys to Success: An analysis of successful partnerships has identified common features. These include: Project delivery focused on addressing local requirements over a sustained period of time. Likely to include issues as varied as access, car parking, addition to their local Business Rate, to pay for additional services. Where there is a majority vote in favour, all businesses are required to pay. The genuine commitment of the Local Authority (both at senior officer and political level) Adequate funding identified from a broad base of supporters/ sponsors and other sources A Business Plan and a programme of projects endorsed and funded by the partners A robust, inclusive partnership that represents a genuine cross-section of all the elements of town centre activity. A management structure with clear accountabilities to deliver the Business Plan and to monitor and evaluate progress A realistic, achievable vision for the centre that identifies the necessary steps required for its delivery The precept is gathered by the Local Authority but passed to a business-led local partnership to manage and deliver the BID Business Plan. Support available from Alliance Boots, Corporate Affairs: 1. Links and contacts to a broad range of external organisations that can assist with sourcing information and practical support. 2. An additional programme is facilitated by Boots UK for those sites currently without an effective local partnership, but wishing to establish one 3. The Company continues to support the core funding of 100 Town Centre Management initiatives. A twice-yearly Induction Programme is provided by Boots UK (at no charge to ATCM members), for newly appointed Partnership Managers. The programme focuses on the key issues that challenge partnerships and offers help to successfully resolve them 4. A series of short briefing papers have been prepared that store managers and town centre managers can receive upon request. These include; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Developing a Retail Crime Partnership à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Participating in Working Groups and Steering Groups à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Business Improvement Districts what are they à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Influencing Car Park Provision à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Developing Christmas à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Business Improvement Districts lessons learnt à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Preparing a Business Plan à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Broadening the Base of Business Engagement membership services à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Funding à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Marketing and Promotion. Launching an effective campaign to promote your centre à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Business Improvement Districts key criteria necessary for Alliance Boots support à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Sunday/extended Trading hours 5. Advice and guidance to store managers and Town Centre Managers, via contact details on page one of this brief Development of Boots Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy: The launch in 2004 of a new CSR strategy has enabled Boots to develop a framework to integrate sustainable development holistically into all areas of operations covering the sectors of: Workplace Marketplace Community Environment This strategy ensures that sustainable development is integrated effectively across the organisation and underlines Boots commitment to social responsibility as a business value. Progress is reviewed quarterly and reported to the Corporate Social Responsibility Action Group chaired by the Group Operations Director. In addition the Board Social Responsibilities Committee chaired by a non-executive Board Director reviews consistency against operational planning on a quarterly basis. Within these sectors are a total of 21 focus areas. For each one a review was undertaken to benchmark against similar organisations, analyse strengths, weaknesses and identify opportunities for improvements. From this our ambition and annual targets have been developed Targets and progress made in meeting them is reported annually and made publicly available. Porters 5 forces analysis: Competitive rivalry All the other retailers have different competitive advantages. The other factors which compete with the Boots bank is different banks and building societies The retail market is filled up with high competitors as more and more companies are trying to step into the Health Beauty industry Boots reach in different stores allows it to reach large number of customers. Barriers for entry Local knowledge is required for a new business in order to establish, which is highly difficult for new firms to replicate. Barriers to entry is high due to a number of factors: Secondly, company in retail sectors are increasing, which itself means there is very less chance for any new entrances. Firstly, company looking to set up its business in UK requires lots of investment, brand development, which takes years to establish. Threats of Substitutes The only major threat of substitute is an internal industry threat, wherein one supermarket can lap up the business of other supermarkets. The threats for newcomers or substitutes is less, as the consumers views that as a necessity, especially in the developed world. The retail market is always trying to look around for new innovations with respect to Health Beauty products, alternative businesses. As a result of which it is difficult for substitution. Buyers power During the time of recession consumers wants are taken into more demand, thereby increasing their power. Because of the presence of too many competitors in the retail Health Beauty sector selling the same product, buyer power is high in the industry. Supplier power Suppliers in itself is huge company providing products to the supermarkets. If the products are not sold, consumer will shift loyalties, making suppliers more powerful. And also when the products do not reach the supermarket, sales do get affected hugely. Developing Tools and Processes: The company has formal processes for all new product development and introduction. To integrate sustainable development criteria consistently across our product range new and revised tools and processes were introduced. Mckinsey growth pyramid It is similar to that of market matrix. This model argues that business should develop their growth strategies based on: Growth skills Privileged assets Operational skills Privileged assets The model outlines seven ways of achieving growth, which are: New product and services A combination of market matrix and diversification strategy-by developing and marketing new products. Some of these can be sold to the existing customers who trust the business but new customers would require more persuasion. Existing products to new customers Taking the current customers as a base, the objective is to find entirely new products that these customers may buy, or else start to provide the products the existing customer is buying from the competitors. Existing products to existing customers The lowest-risk option; try to increase sales to the existing customers; which can be done by increasing the frequency of purchase and maintaining customer loyalty. New competitive arenas This option requires a business to think about opportunities to integrate vertically or consider whether the skills could be used in other industries. New geographies In this businesses are encouraged to consider new geographical areas into which to sell their products. Geographical expansions is one of the most powerful option for growth-but also one of the difficult ones. New delivery approaches This focuses on the use of distribution channels as a possible means of growth. Are there any ways in which the products can be sold using the current or new emerging channels which may boost sales? New industry structure It considers the possibility of acquiring troubled competitors which can be done through a general acquisition program. TASK2 MARKETING ENVIRONMENT Using of PESTEL analysis, marketing mix elements can be produced to contribute the goals and values of Boots, after analyzing the current marketing environment. PESTEL analysis: PESTEL ANALYSIS (Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal)The PESTEL analysis is a useful tool for understanding market growth or decline, and as such the position, potential and direction for a business.. The PESTEL analysis headings are a framework for reviewing a situation, and can also, like SWOT analysis, and Porters Five Forces model, be used to review a strategy or position, direction of a company, a marketing proposition, or idea. Its an external factor. PESTEL is used to assess the market for a business or organizational unit. A PESTEL analysis is a business measurement tool. A PESTEL analysis measures a market; a SWOT analysis measures a business unit, a proposition or idea. Considering each factor individually :- Political European/international legislation international regulations government term and change regulatory bodies and processes current legislation home market government trading policies funding, grants and initiatives Economic The UK has been in recession since August 2009 with two successive quarters of decline , affecting the economical factors nationally and globally. general/ product specific taxation issues customer/end-user drivers overseas economies and trends home economy situation/ trends specific industry factors market routes and distribution trends Social Factors including the demographic changes, the way people live, work and think and cultural aspect of the place, affecting customer needs and the potential markets demographics consumer attitudes and opinions lifestyle trends advertising and publicit .media views consumer buying patterns brand, company, technology image ethnic/religious factors Technological It includes RD, computerization, technology incentives and rate at which technology changes. These changes affect the cost and quality of the product motivating for improvement. competing technology development research funding intellectual property issues consumer buying mechanisms/technology maturity of technology associated/dependent technologies manufacturing maturity and capacity technology access, licensing, patents replacement technology/solutions information and communications innovation potential technology access, licensing, patents technology legislation Environmental Boots uses the carbon foot printing tool in their farms which says about the total amount of greenhouse gases caused directly and indirectly in the making and transportation of that product climate Weather climate change .. Legal The cost of production and operation and effect on employees working in Boots was affected when government increased the labour wages by 15%. It also follows legal factors like no child labour, special consideration for disables ,etc. health and safety law employment law antitrust law discrimination law consumer law Globalisation:- After considering all the above factors Boots should put plan and put down proper strategies before entering the global market and also reviewing the progress on regular basis , so as to make the necessary changes. Following are the areas which should be consider by the organisation: Well planned Strategies to develop the profit and to attain long term goal Know clearly the goals , objectives and targets with a regular follow up. Organisation should identify and assess their product in the market need to plan strategically as well as operationally market growth using the PESTEL analysis. logic, self-discipline and to operate systematically SWOT analysis STRENGTHS Strengths Weaknesses Strong Brand Equity Low profitability Store Network Lack of International Presence Opportunities Threats Store expansions in UK Intense price competition Expanding product offerings High regulatory oversight WEAKNESSES Declining Reputation Boots is only presented in UK. Therefore there can be an issue if the company wants to have growth in the retailing Health Beauty Division sector. OPPORTUNITY Online sales are a great opportunity for future growth. Staff which works at Boots are essential buyers, administrators, systems designers, finance workers and so on all are part of the whole team that must work together to make things operate smoothly and efficiently Boots alternative business, investing in properties can have major growth in the future. THREATS As a result there needs to be investment related to environmental and green issues. Boots operations have become a topic on various issues like environmental, planning and other factors. Conclusion It is important to recognize that sustainable development is a journey of continual improvement. The processes and tools we have developed are under continual review and refinement. Some of our priorities for the immediate future include: Extending and adapting the risk assessment model for use in other business functions. Developing product sustainability benchmarking Building sustainable development criteria into brand and departmental key performance indicators. Understanding the climate change impacts of products. Developing strategies for consumer information on sustainable development issues. In short Boots UKs views sustainable development as a Holy Grail given the scale of the challenge, the complexity of our business and the pace of change. But we know that it is a key differential for Boots UK, that we are leading the way on many of the issues, and it is no less than what is expected of us by our customers and wider society. Journals/Magazines European Journal of Marketing (Emerald Group Publishing) Campaign ( Haymarket Publishing) Admap ( World Advertising Research Centre) Revolution ( Haynet) Journal of Consumer Behaviour ( Academy of Marketing Science) Marketing Intelligence and Planning (Emerald Group Publishing) Marketing Business (The Chartered Institute of Marketing Magazine) Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science ( Academy of Marketing Science) Marketing Week (Centure Communications Ltd) Websites http://www.boots-UK/Media/PDFs/CSR/2BCE_AWARDS_Paper_v3_general_release.pdf http://www.boots.com/en/Help/About-Boots.com/ http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt.PDF http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEST_analysis http://www.businesspme.com/uk/articles/marketing/6/Types-of-marketing-strategies.html http://www.chicagoexec.net/chicago.nsf http://www.boots-uk.com/Our_Group/Alliance_Boots_Board.aspx http://strategy-guide.blogspot.com/2006/03/mckinsey-growth-pyramid The Strategic Marketing Process

Economic Impacts of Climate Change

Economic Impacts of Climate Change Economic Impacts of Climate Change and Variability on Agricultural Production in the Middle East and North Africa Region 1. Introduction The accumulation of scientific evidences indicating that growing greenhouse gases will warm our planet becomes clearer. Higher temperature and changes in precipitation level will shrinkage crop yield in many countries. IPCC (2007) reported that most land areas will experience an increase in average temperature with more frequent heat waves, more stressed water resources and desertification. Stern and Treasury (2006) noted, that the â€Å"the poorest countries and populations† will bear the greatest costs of climate change. Therefore, the impact of climate change on agriculture has received increasing attention in the last decade literatures. Climate change coupled with population growth will deeply affect the availability and quality of water resources in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region (Alpert, Krichak, Shafir, Haim, Osetinsky, 2008; Evans, 2010; Gao Giorgi, 2008). In a similar way, Sowers and Weinthal (2010) argued that since most of the MENA region is arid and hyper-arid, slight changes in water accessibility and arable land have substantial consequences for human security. It is worth to take into account the climatic variability in addition to climate change in order to provide an integrated analysis of the impact of climate variables. Selvaraju and Baas (2007) stated that climate variability is the way climate fluctuates yearly above or below a long-term average value while climate change is the long-term continuous change (increase or decrease) to average weather conditions or the range of weather. In this study, we consider the possible impacts of climate changes and climate variability on agricultural production, with a focus on the region of Middle East and North Africa, where the deleterious impacts of climate change are generally projected to be greatest. In order to achieve such objective, Fixed Effect Regression (FER) is used to Estimate the agricultural production function using cross-section time series data of MENA countries. The advantages of panel data analysis are; getting actual responses is more informative to policy makers than resul ts from field trials. Second, country fixed effects capture all additive differences between various countries (Stock Watson, 2003). 2. Data Sources In order to estimate the production function, cross-sectional time series (panel data) are used. The panel set consists of 20 MENA countries for the time period between 1961 and 2009 including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Table 1 shows the data description and data sources. Due to unavailability of the data for few countries, some observations are missing therefore panel data in the model are unbalanced. The data set consists of two variables group. The first is economics variables such as net agricultural production index number in international dollar, agricultural machinery, total fertilizers consumed, labors, and land. The second data subset is climatic variables like temperature and precipitation. The monthly climatic data were available by meteorological stations rather than by country as shown in Table 2. Therefore, it was necessary to calculate monthly country averages of climate variables and summed up into seasonal data. Table 1 Data description and sources Variable Unit Description Source Agricultural production 1000 I$ Net agricultural Production Index Number (2004-2006 = 100) FAO statistics Agricultural machinery (tractors) Number Agricultural tractors, refer to total wheel, crawler or track-laying type tractors and pedestrian tractors used in agriculture. FAO statistics Fertilizers consumption Ton nutrients Total consumption of chemical fertilizers (N+P2O5+K2O) International Fertilizer Industry Association Livestock Head Buffaloes + cattle FAO statistics Labor Million Total economically active population International Labor Organization (LABORSTA) Land 1000 Hectare Total area of cultivated land FAO statistics Temperature Celsius Monthly mean temperature FAOClim-NET: Agroclimatic database management system Precipitation millimeter Monthly mean precipitation FAOClim-NET: Agroclimatic database management system 3. Climate change and agriculture in Mena countries According to the World Bank, The Middle East and North Africa is one of the regions that is most vulnerable to climate change, with the highest level of water scarcity in the world. The region has a total area of about 14 million km2, of which more than 87 per cent is desert. It is characterized by a high dependency on climate-sensitive agriculture and a large share of its population and economic activities are located in flood-prone urban coastal zones. Bucknall (2007) classify the MENA countries into three groups on the subject of water source and availability. First group is countries have adequate quantities of renewable water, but the within-country and within year variations are problematically large including Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. Second group is countries that have low levels of renewable water resources and highly dependent on non-renewable groundwater sources and supplies by desalination of sea water like Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The last group is countries that mainly dependent on the inflow of transboundary rivers such as the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates including Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. Table 2 Descriptive Statistics for Aggregated climatic variables during the Period 1961-2009 No. Metrological stations Temperature (c °) Precipitation (mm/year) Mean Std. Dev. Mean Std. Dev. Algeria 95 19.91 0.99 23.98 5.99 Bahrain 1 26.62 0.91 8.51 7.74 Egypt 52 22.42 0.63 4.14 2.15 Iran 67 17.31 2.70 20.03 9.05 Iraq 29 22.35 2.82 13.62 7.98 Israel 13 19.80 1.53 29.33 14.31 Jordan 15 18.95 1.08 15.77 5.04 Kuwait 15 25.91 1.23 13.73 7.49 Lebanon 12 18.49 1.78 56.58 17.08 Libya 27 21.14 0.80 14.74 4.12 Morocco 34 18.03 0.71 32.29 10.95 Oman 27 26.78 0.60 8.00 5.34 Qatar 2 27.46 0.70 6.40 5.05 Saudi Arabia 67 25.19 0.91 5.93 3.73 Sudan 47 28.30 0.89 48.51 57.62 Syrian Arab Republic 20 18.30 0.90 21.61 7.26 Tunisia 25 19.35 0.98 30.30 8.34 Turkey 315 13.03 0.89 51.31 7.73 United Arab Emirates 13 27.56 1.33 5.47 5.11 Yemen 12 25.52 3.52 9.70 7.44 4. Methodology There are various models can be employed to assess the impact of climate change on agricultural production. Ricardian model, Agronomic model, and crop simulation models are most widely adopted models for the climate impact studies (Lee, Nadolnyak, Hartarska, 2012). The Ricardian model estimates the examines the impact of climate and other variables on land values and farm revenues using cross-sectional data (Mendelsohn, Nordhaus, Shaw, 1994). Crop Simulation Models (CSM) restrict the analysis to crop physiology and compare crop productivity for different climatic conditions (Salvo, Begalli, Signorello, 2013). Because of the country level panel analysis, the production function model is adopted for the analysis in the present study. Model To estimate the impact of climatic change on agriculture production in MENA countries, an empirical production function for country i at time t net agricultural production index is a function of some economic inputs (Frisvold Ingram, 1995) and climatic variables: . Y represents the net agricultural production index,; M, F, L, A, and V are economic inputs which include agricultural machinery, fertilizer consumption, labor, cultivated area, and livestock respectively. T and represent temperature and precipitation. Number of agricultural tractors is used as proxy of agricultural capital stock and number of cattle and buffaloes is used as proxy of livestock production. For climatic variables temperature and precipitation, mean of the winter season (January, February, and March) , spring (April, May, and June), summer (July, August, and September), and Fall (October, November, and December) are involved in the model. Following (Barrios, Ouattara, Strobl, 2008; Belloumi, 2014; Lee et al. , 2012), The agricultural production model in the present study has the following specification form: (1) By taking the log on both sides, the fixed effect panel model is: (2) According to the fixed effect model, ÃŽ ±i (i=1†¦.n) is the unknown intercept for each country that absorb unabsorbed time variant effects and is a time varying effects. For climatic variables, both the linear and quadratic forms are integrated into the model in order to consider the nonlinear relationship between agricultural production and climatic variables. Variability As it is also sensible to estimate the impact of the variability of climatic variable along with the seasonal deviation and the mean temperature and precipitation, the squared of the mean differences of temperature and precipitation for each season observation is used in the second model. Then, This variability was measured by the seasonal coefficient of variation (CV) calculated as the seasonal ratio of the standard deviation to the mean of each climate variable for each country. 5. Results and discussion Review different papers to strengthen the discussion Table 3 shows the results of fixed effects regression analysis in which we estimated the impact of agricultural inputs and climatic variables on agricultural production in MENA countries. The results show that the regression coefficient of temperature is positive and statistically significant in spring, summer, and fall seasons. By contrast, temperature in winter has negative coefficient at significance level of 0.01. Regarding the estimated parameters of precipitation, precipitation during spring showed negative impact at significance level of 1%. The estimated parameters of nonlinear climatic variables indicated that each of the squared summer temperature has positive coefficient at significance level 0.05 while squared winter temperature has negative and significant impact at level of 0.05. In addition, squared spring precipitation showed positive influence. As expected, production inputs showed significant and positive relation with agricultural production except machinery and fertilizers consumption. As inputs and agricultural production are in logarithmic form, the regression coefficients reflect the production elasticity of each input. Therefore, 1 percent increase in each input of livestock, labor, and land, with keeping all other inputs the same, leads to increase in agricultural production by 0.16%, 0.98%, and 0.91% respectively. Table 3 Fixed Effects Regression analysis of climate change Variables Coefficients S.E. P value Intercept -0.0582 0.0160 -0.058 Winter Temperature -0.0582** 0.0160 0.000 Spring Temperature 0.0431* 0.0212 0.042 Summer Temperature 0.0730** 0.0213 0.001 Fall Temperature 0.0408** 0.0154 0.008 Winter Temperature Squared -0.0024* 0.0010 0.014 Spring Temperature Squared 0.0002 0.0016 0.892 Summer Temperature Squared 0.0043* 0.0019 0.028 Fall Temperature Squared -0.0005 0.0010 0.643 Winter Precipitation -0.0006 0.0004 0.128 Spring Precipitation 0.0004* 0.0002 0.050 Summer Precipitation -0.0001 0.0002 0.760 Fall Precipitation 0.0002 0.0003 0.438 Winter Precipitation Squared -5.0600E-06 5.1400E-06 0.325 Spring Precipitation Squared 3.8800E-06 6.2400E-06 0.535 Summer Precipitation Squared 1.5300E-05* 7.6600E-06 0.047 Fall Precipitation Squared -3.4000E-06 4.7100E-06 0.470 Machinery -0.0471 0.0282 0.095 Fertilizers Consumption -0.0269 0.0166 0.107 Livestock 0.1599** 0.0389 0.000 Labor 0.9802** 0.0481 0.000 Land 0.9128** 0.1000 0.000 R2 within 0.8932 R2 between 0.7827 R2 overall 0.7917 F test 120.8300 F-ui=0 951.88** Obs. No 980 The results of Fixed Effects Regression analysis of climate variability as explanatory variables and agricultural production are presented in Table 4. The results suggest that temperature variability in fall season seems to have significant and positive relation with agricultural production while it has negative relation in spring. Squared variability of temperature during winter and summer seasons have significant and negative relation. Furthermore, variability of winter precipitation have positive and significant relation. Likewise, the regression coefficient of squared variation of winter and summer precipitation showed significant and positive relation with agricultural production.. Table 4 Fixed Effects Regression analysis of climate variability Variables Coefficients S.E. P value Intercept 3.8918** 0.0422 0.000 Winter Temperature -0.2451 0.1818 0.178 Spring Temperature -0.5086** 0.1921 0.008 Summer Temperature 0.0418 0.1850 0.821 Fall Temperature 0.8505** 0.1929 0.000 Winter Temperature Squared -0.0825* 0.0408 0.044 Spring Temperature Squared 0.0204 0.0370 0.581 Summer Temperature Squared -0.0571** 0.0216 0.008 Fall Temperature Squared -0.0071 0.0487 0.884 Winter Precipitation 0.0425** 0.0090 0.000 Spring Precipitation 0.0269 0.0774 0.728 Summer Precipitation 0.1717 0.2138 0.422 Fall Precipitation -0.1943 0.1946 0.319 Winter Precipitation Squared 0.0221** 0.0062 0.000 Spring Precipitation Squared -0.0020 0.0034 0.558 Summer Precipitation Squared 0.0005* 0.0003 0.044 Fall Precipitation Squared 0.0056 0.0042 0.18 R2 within 0.793 R2 between 0.943 R2 overall 0.769 F test 11.620 F-ui=0 11.330 Obs. No 980 Marginal Impact analysis The excepted marginal effects of climatic change and variability on agricultural production appraised at the mean are calculated by the first-order differentiation of the equation 2 to temperature and precipitation respectively: (3) (4) The elaticities of climate change and variability of temperature and precipitation are derived from equations (3) and (4) respectively by dividing both equation (3) on and equation (4) on . therefore, the elasticities can be computed as : (5) (6) Where and refer to temperature change or variability and precipitation change or variability respectively. The marginal impact of climate change and climate variability on agricultural production in the MENA region are presented in Table 5. The impact and the elsticities of Climate change and climate variability are calculated using the regression coefficient and mean values of temperatures and precipitation. The results indicate that increase of temperature in winter season has negative impact on agricultural production as one percent increase in temperature during winter season will lead to a decrease in agricultural production value by 1.12 percent. Instead, increasing the temperature during the other seasons showed positive impact. Temperature variability negative impact on agricultural production during winter and spring as one percent increase of temperature variability, will lead to about 0.09 and 0.14 percent decrease in agricultural production. In regard to the impact precipitation changes, the results confirmed that increasing precipitation during winter and fall season have negative impact on agricultural production in MENA countries while it has positive impact in spring and summer seasons. Moreover, the results of the impact of precipitation variability showed that precipitation variability has negative impact during winter and summer seasons, whereas one percent increase of precipitation variability will lead to decrease in agricultural production in the MENA region by 0.037 and 0.013 percent respectively. However, precipitation variability showed positive impact during the season of spring and fall. Table 5 Marginal impacts of climate change and variability on agricultural production Climate change Climate Variability Marginal impact Elasticity Marginal impact Elasticity Temperature Winter -4.517 -1.115 -12.408 -0.087 Spring 3.746 1.567 -29.211 -0.139 Summer 4.130 2.025 7.039 0.027 Fall 2.897 0.927 41.713 0.265 Precipitation Winter -0.162 -0.092 -2.884 -0.037 Spring 0.019 0.005 1.038 0.013 Summer 0.272 0.046 -3.303 -0.071 Fall -0.040 -0.019 0.071 0.001 References Alpert, Pinhas, Krichak, Simon O, Shafir, Haim, Haim, David, Osetinsky, Isabella. (2008). Climatic trends to extremes employing regional modeling and statistical interpretation over the E. Mediterranean. Global and Planetary Change, 63(2), 163-170. Barrios, Salvador, Ouattara, Bazoumana, Strobl, Eric. (2008). The impact of climatic change on agricultural production: Is it different for Africa? Food Policy, 33(4), 287-298. Belloumi, Mounir. (2014). Investig

Cathedral by Raymond Carver Essay -- Papers Cathedral Raymond Carver E

Cathedral by Raymond Carver In Raymond Carver?s ?Cathedral?, the conventional ideas often associated with blindness and sight are challenged. By juxtaposing his two male characters, Carver is able to effectively explore sight and its seemingly simplistic relationship with learning and knowledge. As well, he addresses the barriers imposed by the human tendency to rely on vision as the sole means of experiencing the world. At the beginning of the story, the narrator?s perception on blind people as individuals who ?moved slowly and never laughed? reflect not only his but also the views generally shared by society (720). The uneasiness experienced by the narrator at the prospect of ?[a] blind man in [his] house? is a representation of the prejudices and fears that we often face when exposed and forced to deal with strange and foreign things (720). Blindness seems especially abnormal to us because vision plays such a heavy role in our everyday ?normal? lives; not seeing equates to not being able to truly understand and experience the beauties of life. Just knowing that the blind man had a wife who he ?lived, worked, slept [with]?had sex?and then bur[ied]. All without having ever seen what the goddamned woman looked like? baffles the narrator (722). ?It [is] beyond [his] understanding? how anyone can exist in such an incomplete existence and thus is much deserved of his pity (722). As the story prog resses the narrator finally meets the blind man who is introduced to him as Robert?before this, the speaker merely refers to Robert as ?the blind man?. The establishment of ?Robert? who ?didn?t use a cane and didn?t ware dark glasses? surprised him?going against the conventions that he had always believed; seeing this b... ..., only through his forced interaction with Robert and his blindness is he able to close his eye and open up his mind. This awakening reveals to him a form of communication, experience and expression that cannot just be seen. In the end it is ironic that even though the narrator was attempting to teach Robert something it was the he who seemed to gain the most from the experience. The blind man and their drawing of the Cathedral are able to defy his previous conceptions of life and thus open a vast array of new possibilities. We are left wondering how much more the narrator learned about himself and about human communication than the blind man has learnt about cathedrals. Bibliography: Carver, Raymond. Cathedral. The Norton Introduction To Literature. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. Seventh Edition. New York: WW Norton 1998.

Comparison of The Little Boy Lost and The Little Boy Found :: English Literature

Comparison of The Little Boy Lost and The Little Boy Found The Little Boy Lost and The Little Boy Found are two poems that are quite different to each other, in the aspect of language used, themes and ideas, and imagery. I shall look at each poem in detail in this essay, along with the different ideas that I get from them. In The Little Boy Lost, the first stanza of the poem gives the reader images of a father ignoring, possibly abandoning his son and walking away from him. This stanza is written in first person, to show us how confused the boy is. The language the boy uses in the first stanza could tell us that his father is walking away from him completely out-of-the-blue, and he does not know what he has done and does not know why his father is leaving him. In the second stanza, we can truly see the effects of a little boy being lost. The images we get are of a young child, alone, with â€Å"no father there†, and â€Å"wet with dew†. And the language in the second stanza is the typical language describing a lost child, scared and crying. But, the â€Å"vapour† in line 4 of the second stanza could symbolise a lost and confused child going towards a light, trying anything to get out of the darkness, and the feeling of loneliness. However, in The Little Boy Found, we can tell from the title that this poem will be more optimistic and positive. In the first stanza, in the first two lines, the imagery hasn’t changed from A Little Boy Lost, a child lost and crying. But, in the last two lines of this stanza, God appears before him. This contrasts to The Little Boy Lost because his father abandoned him, but God, the â€Å"Father† to all living things comes to find him. And the introduction of the colour white in the darkness extends the idea that this poem will be more optimistic than The Little Boy Lost. In the second stanza, God takes the child back to his mother. The child’s mother is oblivious to her child being taken away,

Conquest of Mexico Essay -- essays research papers fc

Conquest of Mexico   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1519 Hernà ¡n Cortà ©s led a couple hundred other Spaniards inland to the impressive Empire of the Mexica ruled by the Great Montezuma. Many historians today tell how quickly and almost effortlessly these Spaniards conquered the Empire. They paint an image of ignorant, helpless Indians practically giving up their land out of fear of this group because certainly the Spaniards must be gods since they have powerful weapons and strange animals. We know neither Cortà ©s nor any of his men were gods, of course, but what was it that allowed Cortà ©s to prevail over the inhabitants of the land? The First Expeditions To begin, in 1517 Francisco Hernà ¡ndez de Cà ³rdova, Bernal Dà ­az del Castillo, and some other gentlemen embarked on a journey to explore new lands in hopes of seeking employment since they had yet to find it in their new home of Cuba. In need of additional provisions, the governor of Cuba, Diego Velà ¡squez, loaned the group supplies and a boat with the agreement that they return with Indians to be used as slaves. At Cape Catoche of the Yucatan Peninsula, Cà ³rdova’s men first encountered a group of Indians who at first appeared friendly and welcoming only to draw those who disembarked along the road to their village where they then ambushed the explorers. In that battle, fifty soldiers died and the captain and the remaining men all suffered many wounds. The explorers continued to receive this type of reception from the Indians they encountered at every stop along the coast of the peninsula. Nearly dieing of thirst for want of fresh water, Cà ³rdova and his men tried again and again to safely land and gain casks of fresh water. At Champoton they encountered fresh water. Yet again they met with hostile, warring Indians. Only one man escaped without harm, but the Indians captured him. Once the Indians retreated, Cà ³rdova and his men quickly filled the casks with fresh water and returned to their ship. In light of the fact that the voyage proved to be somewhat of a disaster and all the men were either ill or wounded, they decided to return at once to Havana. (Dà ­az) Once in Havana, Cà ³rdova sent a report to Governor Velà ¡squez word of their return. In addition to reporting about the warring natives, Cà ³rdova described the discovery of heavily populated lands where the people lived in masonry houses, wore cotton garments,... ... Spaniards, and various Indians battled day after day often regaining what they had lost in the night as they retreated for rest. Cortà ©s had previously been adamant about only causing harm to the Indians when absolutely necessary. The new lord refused to withdraw and admit defeat. Finally, Cortà ©s called for all buildings to be decimated. He had envoys at all entrances to the city by that time, and escape was impossible. July 26, 1520, after 12,000 dead, Cortà ©s claimed Mexico City for Spain. Works Cited Cortà ©s, Hernando. 5 Letters of Cortà ©s to the Emperor 1529 – 1526. Trans. J. Bayard Morris. New York: W. W. Norton, 1962. Dà ­az del Castillo, Bernal. The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico,1517 – 1521/Edited from the only exact copy of the original MS. (and published in Mexico) by Genaro Garcà ­a. Translated with an introd. And notes by A.P. Maudslay. Introd. To the American ed. By Irving A. Leonard. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy, 1956. Helly, Mathilde. Montezuma and the Aztecs/Mathilde Helly and Rà ©mi Courgeon. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1996. Morris, J. Bayard, trans. 5 Letters of Cortà ©s to the Emperor 1529 – 1526. By Hernando Cortà ©s. New York: W. W. Norton, 1962.

Cebu My Hometown Essay

Cebu is located in central visayas approximately 1 hour from manila via airplane, Cebu is known for delicious roasted pork and famous in the works of guitars and delicious pastries. Cebu is one of the famous cities around the country as â€Å"Famous Places in Philippines† by ShareRanks three years ago. I will tell you the beautiful sights and relaxing places located in Cebu but not all. First is the Trans-central Highway a 33 kilometer long road from barangay Lahug Cebu city to Balamban(my home town). Some views in Trans-central are breath taking, and it is a 930 ft. above sea level highway. Island in the Sky is one of the best place to visit in Trans-central Highway, they have a small swimming pool and a short hanging bridge, and cottages that you can hang out and eat with your family and friends. Adventure Cafe also located in Trans-central Highway, walking distance from Island in the Sky, and good thing about Adventure Cafe is their adventure base activities such as zip line, wall climbing, rappelling, and stress walk, but honestly haven’t tried their activies, maybe when I go back. There are more place to visit in Trans-central Highway, buy i can only mention two places you can visit. And the last place I want to share is the Whale shark watching, it’s not in Trans-central Highway, there is no whales in 930 ft. above sea level. (haha) It is located in Tan-awan, Oslob, Cebu, 2-3 hours travel or around 177 kilometers south from the Cebu City. There are beaches that offers a tour and rentals for motor banka, but it is very expensive for non-Oslob residents. Whale shark watching is not only available in south side Cebu, but also in north side Cebu. So today I told you the beauty that you can find in my home town, But that’s not all, there are plenty of places you can discover by yourself.

Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 35

Chapter 35 Sculptures Sunset cast a warm orange across the great Pyramid, while below, the Emperor enjoyed a cappuccino on a concrete bench and Bummer and Lazarus battled for the remains of a three-pound porterhouse. â€Å"Men, would that I could let you, like Cincinnatus, retire like gentlemen soldiers to the country, but the City is still in need. The fiend is vanquished, but not the despair of my people. Our responsibility is legion.† A family of tourists passed the Emperor, hurrying to get to the cable-car stop at California Street before dark, and the Emperor tipped his cup in salute. The father, a balding fat man in an Alcatraz sweatshirt, took the Emperor's gesture as a request for spare change and said, â€Å"Why don't you get a job?† The Emperor smiled. â€Å"Good sir, I have a job. I am Emperor of San Francisco and Protector of Mexico.† The tourist scrunched his face in disgust. â€Å"Look at you. Look at your clothes. You stink. You need a bath. You're nothing but a bum.† The Emperor looked down at the fraying cuffs of his dirty wool overcoat, his rib-worn gray corduroys, stained with splatters of vampire blood, the holes in his filthy sneakers. He raised an arm and took a sniff, then hung his head. The tourists walked away. Cavuto and Rivera sat in leather wingback chairs in front of the fireplace in Cavuto's Cow Hollow apartment. The fireplace was burning, the fire crackling and dancing as it fought off the damp chill of the bay. The room was furnished with rugged oak antiques, the bookshelves filled with detective novels, the walls hung with guns and posters from Bogart movies. Rivera drank cognac; Cavuto, Scotch. On the coffee table between them stood a three-foot-high bronze statue of a ballerina. â€Å"So what do we do with it?† Cavuto asked. â€Å"It's probably stolen.† â€Å"Maybe not,† Rivera said. â€Å"He might have bought it from Degas himself.† â€Å"The black kid says it's worth millions. You think he's right?† Rivera lit a cigarette. â€Å"If it's authentic, yeah. So what do we do with it?† â€Å"I've only got a couple of years before I retire. I've always wanted to own a rare-book shop.† Rivera smiled at the thought. â€Å"The wife wants to see Europe. I wouldn't mind having a little business of my own. Maybe learn to play golf.† â€Å"We could turn it in and just finish our time. They're going to move us out of homicide after this, you know that? We're too old for narcotics. Probably vice – night after night of screaming hookers.† Rivera sighed. â€Å"I'll miss homicide.† â€Å"Yeah, it was quiet.† â€Å"I've always wanted to learn about rare books,† Rivera said. â€Å"No golf,† Cavuto said. â€Å"Golf is for pussies.† Tommy moved the futon so he could sit facing the two statues, then sat down to admire his handiwork. He'd worked all day in the foundry below, covering Jody and the vampire with the thin coat of conductive paint and putting them into the bronzing vats. The two biker sculptors had been more than happy to help, especialy when Tommy pulled a handful of cash out of the grocery bag that the Emperor had delivered. The statues looked very lifelike. They should, they were still alive under the bronze coating, except for Zelda, who stood next to the two vampires. Tommy had put Jody in a leotard before he applied the paint. He'd dressed the vampire in a pair of his own jockey shorts. It was amazing how fast the vampire had healed after drinking Jody's blood. The worst part had been waiting – waiting outside the bedroom where Jody had carried the vampire, waiting for them to go out at sunrise, listening to the soft murmur of their voices. What had they been talking about? Overall, the vampire looked pretty good. Almost all the damage to his body had healed by morning. Jody, even bronzed, looked beautiful. The finishing touch had been to drill ear holes through the thick bronze coating so he could talk to her. â€Å"Jody, I know that you're probably really, really mad. I don't blame you. But I didn't have a choice. It's not forever, it's just until I can figure out what to do. I didn't want to lose you. I know you wanted to just go away and I think you would have, but he wouldn't have. He would never have let me live.† Tommy waited, as if he would get some response from the statue. He picked up the grocery bag of money from the floor and held it up. â€Å"By the way, we're rich! Cool, huh? I'll never make fun of Lash for studying business again. In less than a day he fenced the art from the yacht and got us ten cents on the dollar. Our cut's over a hundred thousand. The guys flew to Vegas. We tried to give a share to the Emperor, but he would only take enough to buy a meal for Bummer and Lazarus. He said that money would distract him from his responsibilities. Great, huh?† He dropped the money and sighed. â€Å"Those two cops believed you. They're going to leave us alone. They reported that the killer was on board the yacht when it went up. Lash gave the gate guard some money to back up their story. I couldn't believe they were going along with it. I think the big cop kind of likes me. â€Å"I'm going to write a book about this. I came here to find adventure and being with you sure has been that. And I don't want to give it up. I know we're not the same. And we shouldn't feel lonely when we have each other. I love you. I'm going to figure I something out. I've got to sleep now. It's been days.† He got up and went to Jody. â€Å"I'm sorry,† he said. He kissed the cold bronze lips and was turning to go into the bedroom when the phone rang. â€Å"It's probably the Animals calling from some casino,† he said as he picked up the phone. â€Å"Hello.† â€Å"Uh, hi,† a man's voice said. â€Å"Could I speak to Jody, please?† Tommy pulled the phone away and looked at it, then put it to his ear and said, â€Å"Jody's†¦ well†¦ she's deceased.† â€Å"I know. Can I speak to her?† â€Å"You sick fuck.† â€Å"Is this C. Thomas Flood? The guy from the paper?† Who was this guy? â€Å"Look, buddy, that was a mistake. They got the guy who did those murders.† â€Å"Look, my name is Steve. I can't tell you my last name. Not until I'm sure it's safe. I'm a med student at Berkeley. I spoke to Jody the other night. We were supposed to meet the other night at Enrico's, but she never showed up. I'm kind of glad, I met a nice girl who works at the Safeway with you. Anyway, when I saw Jody's name in the paper I took a chance and looked up the number.† â€Å"If you saw the paper, you know what happened to Jody,† Tommy said. â€Å"This isn't very funny.† The line was silent for a moment, then Steve said, â€Å"Do you know what she is?† Tommy was shocked. â€Å"Do you?† â€Å"So you do know?† â€Å"She is, I mean was, my girlfriend.† â€Å"Look, I'm not trying to blackmail you or anything. I don't want to turn you in. I talked to Jody about reversing her condition. Well, I think I've found a way to do it.† â€Å"You're kidding.† â€Å"No. Tell her. I'll call you back tomorrow night. I know she's not up during the day.† â€Å"Wait,† Tommy said. â€Å"Are you serious about this? I mean, you can make her human again?† â€Å"I think so. It will probably take a few months. But I've been able to do it with cloned cells in the lab.† Tommy covered the mouthpiece and turned to the statue of Jody. â€Å"There's a guy here that says he can help you. We can be†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Vapor was streaming out of the ear holes in the brass and swirling into a cloud in the middle of the room. Tommy dropped the phone and backed away from the cloud. He could hear Steve's voice calling for him on the phone. Tommy backed against the counter in the kitchen. â€Å"Jody, is that you?† The cloud was pulsating, sending out tendrils, or were they limbs? It was as if it was condensing into a solid shape. Jody thought, Oh Tommy, you can't believe what I learned last night. You're going to have the adventure of your life, lover. And it's going to be such a long life. The things you'll see – I can't wait to show them to you. She became solid, stood before him, naked, smiling. Tommy held the phone to his chest. â€Å"You're pissed, aren't you?† â€Å"I was never going to leave you, Tommy. I love you.† â€Å"But what about him?† Tommy pointed to the bronzed vampire. â€Å"I had to make him think that I was going to go with him so I could find out what I needed to know. I've learned a lot, Tommy. I'm going to teach you.† She started moving toward him. â€Å"He taught you the mist thing, huh?† â€Å"That, and how a vampire is made.† â€Å"No kidding. That could come in handy.† â€Å"And soon,† she said. She looked back at the old vampire. â€Å"The bronzing was a pretty good trick. I didn't exactly know what I was going to do with him after I found out what I needed to know. Maybe later we can figure out a way to let him out and still be safe.† â€Å"So, you're not mad? You're really not leaving?† â€Å"No. I thought I would have to leave, but I never wanted to. You and I are going to be together for a very long time.† Tommy smiled. â€Å"Great, this guy on the phone says†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Hang up, Tommy. And come here.† â€Å"But he says†¦ he can change you back.† â€Å"Hang up.† She took the phone from him and set it down on the counter, then moved into his arms and kissed him.