The definition and features of a marginal costing system

The definition and features of a marginal costing system Introduction The costs that vary with a decision should only be included in decision analysis. For many decisions that involve relatively small variations from existing practice and/or are for relatively limited periods of time, fixed costs are not relevant to the decision. This is because either fixed costs tend to be impossible to alter in the short term or managers are reluctant to alter them in the short term Marginal costing definition Marginal costing distinguishes between fixed costs and variable costs as conventionally classified. The marginal cost of a product -is its variable cost. This is normally taken to be, direct labor, direct material, direct expenses and the variable part of overheads. What is Marginal Costing? It is a costing technique where only variable cost or direct cost will be charged to the cost unit produced. Marginal costing also shows the effect on profit of changes in volume and type of output by differentiating between fixed variable costs. Salient Points: Marginal costing involves ascertaining marginal costs. Since marginal costs are direct cost, this costing technique is also known as direct costing; In marginal costing, fixed costs are never charged to production. They are treated as period charge and is written off to the profit and loss account in the period incurred; Once marginal cost is ascertained contribution can be computed. Contribution is the excess of revenue over marginal costs. The marginal cost statement is the basic document/format to capture the marginal costs. Features of Marginal Costing System: It is a method of recording costs and reporting profits; All operating costs are differentiated into fixed and variable costs; Variable cost charged to product and treated as a product cost whilst Fixed cost treated as period cost and written off to the profit and loss account Advantages Marginal costing is simple to understand. By not charging fixed overhead to cost of production, the effect of varying charges per unit is avoided. It prevents the illogical carry forward in stock valuation of some proportion of current years fixed overhead. The effects of alternative sales or production policies can be more readily available and assessed, and decisions taken would yield the maximum return to business. It eliminates large balances left in overhead control accounts which indicate the difficulty of ascertaining an accurate overhead recovery rate. Practical cost control is greatly facilitated. By avoiding arbitrary allocation of fixed overhead, efforts can be concentrated on maintaining a uniform and consistent marginal cost. It is useful to various levels of management. It helps in short-term profit planning by breakeven and profitability analysis, both in terms of quantity and graphs. Comparative profitability and performance between two or more products and divisions can easily be assessed and brought to the notice of management for decision making. Disadvantages The separation of costs into fixed and variable is difficult and sometimes gives misleading results. Normal costing systems also apply overhead under normal operating volume and this shows that no advantage is gained by marginal costing. Under marginal costing, stocks and work in progress are understated. The exclusion of fixed costs from inventories affect profit and true and fair view of financial affairs of an organization may not be clearly transparent. Volume variance in standard costing also discloses the effect of fluctuating output on fixed overhead. Marginal cost data becomes unrealistic in case of highly fluctuating levels of production, e.g., in case of seasonal factories. Application of fixed overhead depends on estimates and not on the actual and as such there may be under or over absorption of the same. Control affected by means of budgetary control is also accepted by many. In order to know the net profit, we should not be satisfied with contribution and hence, fixed overhead is also a valuable item. A system which ignores fixed costs is less effective since a major portion of fixed cost is not taken care of under marginal costing. In practice, sales price, fixed cost and variable cost per unit may vary. Thus, the assumptions underlying the theory of marginal costing sometimes becomes unrealistic. For long term profit planning, absorption costing is the only answer. Marginal Costing Formulae:- MARGINAL COST = VARIABLE COST DIRECT LABOUR + DIRECT MATERIAL + DIRECT EXPENSE + VARIABLE OVERHEADS Theory of Marginal Costing The theory of marginal costing as set out in A report on Marginal Costing. In relation to a given volume of output, additional output can normally be obtained at less than proportionate cost because within limits, the aggregate of certain items of cost will tend to remain fixed and only the aggregate of the remainder will tend to rise proportionately with an increase in output. Conversely, a decrease in the volume of output will normally be accompanied by less than proportionate fall in the aggregate cost. The theory of marginal costing may, therefore, by understood in the following two steps: If the volume of output increases, the cost per unit in normal circumstances reduces. Conversely, if an output reduces, the cost per unit increases. If a factory produces 1000 units at a total cost of Rs. 3,000 and if by increasing the output by one unit the cost goes up to Rs. 3,002, the marginal cost of additional output will be Rs.2. If an increase in output is more than one, the total increase in cost divided by the total increase in output will give the average marginal cost per unit. If, for example, the output is increased to 1020 units from 1000 units and the total cost to produce these units is Rs. 1,045, the average marginal cost per unit is Rs. 2.25. It can be described as follows: Additional cost = Additional units Rs. 45 = Rs. 2.25   Ã‚  Ã‚  20 The ascertainment of marginal cost is based on the classification and segregation of cost into fixed and variable cost. In order to understand the marginal costing technique, it is essential to understand the meaning of marginal cost. Marginal cost means the cost of the marginal or last unit produced. It is also defined as the cost of one more or one less unit produced besides existing level of production. In this connection, a unit may mean a single commodity, a dozen, a gross or any other measure of goods. For example, if a manufacturing firm produces X unit at a cost of Rs. 300 and X+1 units at a cost of Rs. 320, the cost of an additional unit will be Rs. 20 which is marginal cost. Similarly if the production of X-1 units comes down to Rs. 280, the cost of marginal unit will be Rs. 20 (300-280). The marginal cost varies directly with the volume of production and marginal cost per unit remains the same. It consists of prime cost, i.e. cost of direct materials, direct labor and all variable overheads. It does not contain any element of fixed cost which is kept separate under marginal cost technique. Marginal costing May be defined as the technique of presenting cost data wherein variable costs and fixed costs are shown separately for managerial decision-making. It should be clearly understood that marginal costing is not a method of costing like process costing or job costing. Rather it is simply a method or technique of the analysis of cost information for the guidance of management which tries to find out an effect on profit due to changes in the volume of output. Marginal costing technique has given birth to a very useful concept of contribution where contribution is given by: Sales revenue less variable cost (marginal cost) Contribution may be defined as the profit before the recovery of fixed costs. Thus, contribution goes toward the recovery of fixed cost and profit, and is equal to fixed cost plus profit (C = F + P). In case a firm neither makes profit nor suffers loss, contribution will be just equal to fixed cost (C = F). this is known as breakeven point. The concept of contribution is very useful in marginal costing. It has a fixed relation with sales. The proportion of contribution to sales is known as P/V ratio which remains the same under given conditions of production and sales. The principles of marginal costing The principles of marginal costing are as follows. For any given period of time, fixed costs will be the same, for any volume of sales and production (provided that the level of activity is within the relevant range). Therefore, by selling an extra item of product or service the following will happen. Revenue will increase by the sales value of the item sold. Costs will increase by the variable cost per unit. Profit will increase by the amount of contribution earned from the extra item. Similarly, if the volume of sales falls by one item, the profit will fall by the amount of contribution earned from the item. Profit measurement should therefore be based on an analysis of total contribution. Since fixed costs relate to a period of time, and do not change with increases or decreases in sales volume, it is misleading to charge units of sale with a share of fixed costs. When a unit of product is made, the extra costs incurred in its manufacture are the variable production costs. Fixed costs are unaffected, and no extra fixed costs are incurred when output is increased. Features of Marginal Costing The main features of marginal costing are as follows: Cost Classification The marginal costing technique makes a sharp distinction between variable costs and fixed costs. It is the variable cost on the basis of which production and sales policies are designed by a firm following the marginal costing technique. Stock/Inventory Valuation Under marginal costing, inventory/stock for profit measurement is valued at marginal cost. It is in sharp contrast to the total unit cost under absorption costing method. Marginal Contribution Marginal costing technique makes use of marginal contribution for marking various decisions. Marginal contribution is the difference between sales and marginal cost. It forms the basis for judging the profitability of different products or departments. Presentation of Cost Data under Marginal Costing Marginal costing is not a method of costing but a technique of presentation of sales and cost data with a view to guide management in decision-making. The traditional technique popularly known as total cost or absorption costing technique does not make any difference between variable and fixed cost in the calculation of profits. But marginal cost statement very clearly indicates this difference in arriving at the net operational results of a firm. Following presentation of two Performa shows the difference between the presentation of information according to absorption and marginal costing techniques: Summary Marginal cost is the cost management technique for the analysis of cost and revenue information and for the guidance of management. The presentation of information through marginal costing statement is easily understood by all mangers, even those who do not have preliminary knowledge and implications of the subjects of cost and management accounting.

The Importance Of Going Green

The Importance Of Going Green A definition of green management according to is the process within an organisation of applying innovation in order to achieve sustainability, waste reduction, social responsibility and a competitive advantage by the aids of continuous learning and development. Organisations shall be doing such developments, by implementing environmental goals and strategies which match the goals and strategies of the organization. This will therefore help the organization to stay focused to its mission and vision. Nowadays, it is found that companies advertise their products by promoting their environmentally friendly behaviour. It does not matter whether it is on TV or on banner; the message of go green is almost always used. But why green? Green is not simply a color. Going green is a way of making changes in the lifestyle of some organizations as well as the society also. This implies bringing in some changes which are friendlier towards the environment. It is to note that the mere truth while doing every simple thing impacting on the planet good or bad, an individual has all the right to make choices, thus the later can control the impact generated. (Team Treehugger, HTGG, 2007) 2.1.1 Importance of going green Moreover, another main thing is the importance of going green. Not many organisations have realized the importance that going green can have on their business. Firstly, adopting green management system means that it will be here forever. Other forms of energy are all finite, but green system will never be depleted. The renewable source of energy will always be here to keep the human needs ongoing. Secondly, by using green materials and workmanship it helps to keep the environment safe as compared to the energy imports which is quite costly. It has been therefore proved that in the United States, green technologies have been able to provide a boost to the economy`s trade deficit. Thirdly, going green will surely benefits the company in terms of its savings. Paying bills online means less money when companies go paperless, it is also a form of savings in terms of postages and paper costs. Hence both the individual and the businesses benefit from the green initiative. Similarly, if you use compact fluorescent light (CFLs) bulbs, you are like to save money on each bulb you purchase. According to Energy Star, replacing a fluorescent bulb you with an incandescent bulb consumes 75 percent less energy. Thus, if you replace a 100-watt incandescent bulb with a 25-watt CFL, you will save over $100 per year, based on U.S. Department of Energy figures. (Chris Dinesen Rogers, 2010) According to (Chris Dinesen Rogers 2010) going green can be beneficial to economic growth. Following the National Recycling Coalition, the recycling industry employing over 1 million people and generating approximately $200 billion in annual revenues is extremely good for the economy. It is also stated that that When you recycle, you are contributing to the sustained growth of the economy. In addition to the above, while using recyclable or organic products implies that toxic materials are removed from the production process hence it can be considered as an environmentally-friendly activity. This explains why organisations must reduce their disposal rates, because the more they dispose of, the more valuable and costly materials are being wasted, as well as producing more greenhouse gases as these landfills decompose. (Green Energy Choice 2013) Going green also means a more sustainable world. According to an article published on (All-recycling-facts.com 2009-2012) the rate at which we are utilizing the world`s resources and deteriorating the globe with several kind of pollution could be very disastrous. A result of these dreadful action is leading to the destruction of the earth`s ecosystem which implies that, we will soon be left with no clean air, water, land and food. It is also stated that the day we reach such a stage, there would be nothing which will be able to save us or even nothing to talk about. Our very lives would be threatened since there will be an atmosphere of impure air, undrinkable water, unhygienic food and probably nothing to save us from the ruthless climate change. Hence, it is primordial that each and every one of us contributes equally as a human community towards a greener environment and promotes green behaviour as something which others must follow. Following the competitive market in companies operates; organisations found it necessary to go divert their production towards greener products since consumers are becoming far more aware of green products are ready to move to competitors. The fact that a company uses a product which has already been used simply reduces the cost of production while at the same time reducing the needs for power as the company is consuming less energy. (Madhurjya Bhattacharyya 2011) also pointed out the fact that the Bank of America now uses much less paper as a result of which has lead to an increase in its customers. The bank also recycles paper internally and gives cash back offer facilities to employees up to a certain limit if ever they decide to buy hybrid vehicles in other words ecological vehicles. Few are those who moved from being traditional, but successful are those who took the risk and implemented the new green management system. Furthermore, with the evolution of the technologies, companies have begun to adopt the EMS approach. This can be referred to as Environmental Management System. This approach helps in gathering information, formulating goals, making the right choices while at the same time improving performance. In other words, EMS is a broader version of quality programs to managing the environment. Hence over the past decades, increasing number of companies has initiated new strategies to integrate the environment into their business strategy so as to improve both their environmental and business performance (Porter 1991; Smart 1992; Porter and van der Linde 1995a, 1955b; Hart and Ahuja 1994). To set the ball rolling on, while some managers are investing in the environment and this is most welcomed by the society, others will have to derive ideas about how to identify circumstances which will be favoring both the public benefits and corporate benefits. Some may want just the ISO 14001 label on their product while simultaneously for some other firms better utilizing their resources may be beneficial to the environment as a whole. All this gave rise to competitive advantage between firms. In the 1990s there was a big debate in the field of Business and Environment about whether it pays to be green. According to the following strategies put forward; free lunch, double dividend and win-win hypothesis, chances for businesses to be profitable in the environmental investments is uprising. However on the other hand, Reinhardt (1998) argued that, the question is not whether companies will be able to do it, but it was about the time factor, that is, when the companies will be able t o implement such strategies and when they will begin to benefit from such investments. 2.1.2 Porter`s Strategies Similarly, Michael Porter identified two different types of competitive advantage generated by firms in 1980; Low cost and differentiation. According to Porter, selling products or services with the lowest costs in the industry would be beneficial to the company in terms of competitive advantage. Hence the firm will be selling its product either at the price prevailing in the industry in order to earn higher profits than that of rival or adopting a price which is below the average price in the industry so as to gain in terms of market share. Such a situation is called a price war among firms in the same industry. During such a situation, a firm can maintain its profitability level to the detriment of its competitive edge on the market. However, it is to note that even if there is no such price war, as the industry grows older, price will decline as a result of which; the firm producing at the lowest cost will remain profitable for a longer time period. The differentiation strategy is when the organisation develops a particular product which offers unique attributes that are valued by consumers and the same product is seen differently from the products of the competitors. According to Porter (1985: 13), a cost leader cannot ignore differentiation. This means that differentiation is as important as lowering the cost of production. Similarly, Levitt (1980) pointed out that everything can be differentiated even a commodity. He says this can be applied for industries dealing in primary metals, grains, chemicals, plastics, and money also. However, Peters and Austin (1985: 61) did not totally agree on this theory. They argued that if we put the label of commodity on a product it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Buzzell and Gale (1987: 113) supported this idea with their argument: if you think of your product/service offering as a commodity, thats what it will bea commodity. 2.1.3 Spending Green With regard to green marketing in practice, the health report are somewhat uncertain. A surge in products and services claiming more or less legitimate claims to environmental friendliness was noted in the 1990s, when a significant proportion of consumer advertising campaigns in many countries contained messages related to the environment (Banerjee et al., 1995; Carlson et al., 1993) Today, however, observation suggests a decline in green claims for mainstream products. In some developed countries, this has at least resulted in a correspondingly less widespread occurrence of vague claims related to doubtful green product attributes, meaning that consumers are now more aware about green products. Consecutively, it is found that when it comes to green consumption, women are doing their part of responsibility when making purchases (i.e.) they are making much more green purchases than men do. While doing so, they also promote their products and services to be environmentally-friendly. Following a study on the purchasing habits of consumers, it was found that women are more environmentally-conscious when it comes to decision making in business that their male counterparts. Women clearly disagreed on the fact that some business owners still believe that promoting their products and services as being environmentally-friendly has little impact on consumers buying habits. It even goes further when Dr. Myra Hart, reported that environmental friendliness was ranked in the top three factors by women business owners, influencing consumer purchasing decision of consumers. It was ranked just below quality (98%) and price (85%) and finally cited environmental friendliness as a moderate infl uencer (76%). As a result of this study, it showed that consumers do take into consideration the environmental factor when making purchases either for them or their business (Lahle Wolfe 2013) Likewise, it is quite obvious that cannot consume the same thing for a long period of time. Consumers always tend to move to other new products and sometimes their behaviour are affected by means of advertising or even their past experience they had with a particular product. By consuming more of less environmentally harmful products and services, consumers can bring in positive changes and therefore lessen the impacts on Earth. Consumers don`t realise, but they have enormous power to improve the world. While on one hand, consumers are advised to consume less in order to protect the environment, on the other hand the money saved can be utilized in order to advance the green economy. Green shopping can be termed as a situation where consumers normally spend money on products that are less harmful towards the environment which is likely to build a more sustainable world. Small changes in consumer behaviour like adopting products that comes with less packaging and those which are made w ith plastics can improve the green economy. Hence, the spending pattern of consumers will determine the type of world they will create in the future. (Richard Matthews 2012) In addition to the above, according to (Debra Atlas 2013) 71% of consumer consider the welfare of the environment when they shop. He also claimed that green thinking has been increased among consumers minds. Environmental concerns are now becoming important to firms also since they have the opportunity to develop their green products demanded by consumers and therefore position their company on the market as a being a green company. This will also help the firm in terms of competitive advantage and increased performance. (Singh 2010) Following globalization, consumers now have access to information which raise their awareness about the manufacturing processes of the products and this made them seek green products. (Hailes 2007) For example; consumers may be interested in the green attributes (whether the product is recyclable, biodegradable, etc) of a product as well as the manufacturing process (whether environmental norms have been respected during the process). (Singh 2008) Practically, with the new trend of green management, consumers are willing even more to spend greener. This means that consumers tend to behave more positive towards the sustainability of the environment than the green movement. In other words, the green products will gradually replace the traditional power products because of their environmental benefits. This is likely to be a successful venture because according to (Wiser 1998) consumers are willing to pay for green products. As a result of this, it will generate a new market for renewable energy products. Hence, this may help to put forward green marketing as a successful tool in the energy market. However, sometimes it not about meeting the consumers expectation; businesses have to surpass the expectations to meet quality products demanded by consumers (Gupta Lehman, 2002; Blackwell et al., 2001; Naumann et al., 2001; Foreman, 2000). Another option which may help the company to build a relationship with its customers` is to create a strong brand image so that it the purchaser decision will rely more on perceptions than on reality. (Vrontiss Thrassou, 2007) This also helped organizations to realise the fact that they have to shape the perceptions of consumer in regard to their products by making use of every marketing communication tools at their disposal. This has therefore led to a situation where consumers were overflowed with adverts and became unresponsive over a period of time. As a result of this, the job of producers to influence the mind of the consumers became much harder and needed extra effort. (Blackwell et al., 2006) Hence it can be said that consumer decision m aking is therefore based on information processing (Johnson Puto, 1987) Also, when it comes to accountability, Robins (2008) points out that a company must be ready to accept its responsibility for its operations and their impact on society and natural environment. Companies should work for welfare of the society as a whole and therefore towards a greener world. Similarly, (Sirsly, 2008) recommended that Corporate Social Responsibility is not always generating the monetary and economic value for the firms, but it help firms to differentiate among themselves. When a third party endorsed its corporate efforts, the reputation of a firm is reinforced in the eyes of both market and non-market stakeholders Sirsly and Lametrz(2008). Eventually, Karna et al. (2003) argued that environmental issues were all in the hands of the government. Hence marketing strategies along with government aids can help to build strong green marketing campaign and therefore helps to protect the environment in better and efficient way. If a firm is introducing a highly differentiated product, it is maximizing the stockholders returns and effectively using environmental strategy. A firm engaged in the cause related marketing because of its long term benefits i.e. to attract and retain consumer for longer period of time. In such type of marketing activity, consumers are emotionally motivate to take part and because they wanted to feel different from other members of society or in their groups Ottman (1993, p.91). 2.1.4 The Cost Factor While going green, several factors influencing the financial aspect of the project should be taken into consideration; one of the most important one is the energy cost. It is found that over time, energy costs usually change and thus it becomes difficult to reap profit from the investment. It is assumed that if the energy costs are low, then the cost benefit of implementing the green system will be low too, but on the contrary assuming fluctuations in the economy, the energy costs might increase which will result in striking payback in the future. For example; the cost of buying a hybrid car may be as the same as a normal car for a long term basis assuming a constant price of gas, but suppose the price of gas experience an increase in the future, then the hybrid car will help one to save much more money than expected. (Gregory Hamel, 1999; 2013) Besides, (Rebecca Lake, 2010) pointed out the fact that several practices and behaviours of going green slogan are all motives of saving money, but still there are still ways while adopting green living can be from moderate to very expensive. It is found that, the technology associated with green living is not beneficial to the environment but often at a much higher cost than their traditional counterparts. For instance: let`s consider the installation of solar panel. It can be very useful in saving money on a long term basis, but at the same time it may cost thousands of dollars to install the equipment. Energy saving appliances is normally to be used so as to save water and energy, but they usually come in a high priced package which sometimes is very costly to organisations. Similarly, eating organic food is another to go green, but in order to get these; one has to pay a significant price unless you decide to grow your own food. Basically, (Chris Joseph, 2013) put forward the fact that when companies implement environmental norms within the organisation, it always ends in costlier products. This implies the switch from the traditional way of production to producing green products which can lead to expensive products to the consumers. It can affect the organisation`s source of revenue if it is operating in developing country, since consumers in developing country have less buying power compared to those in developed country. Similarly, according to Jon Kaplan who owns a Greenworks Cabinetry in Florida manufactures eco-friendly furniture products. Since he has to get most of his materials from the West-Coast and Asian countries too, his products cost much more on the market. This means that he has to sell his products at higher prices which may lead to a situation where consumers will obviously shift to competitors. As a whole, while companies decide to go green, many consumers would like to see the organisation actively doing things so as to prevent the depletion of natural resources. Going green does not happens in a matter of minutes, it is a whole process and it involves huge costs which is not always effective for the company. (Admin, 2013), stated that deciding on whether being environmentally responsible or the level of spending is more will be crucial. If ever the spending out way the desire to be eco-friendly, then it will not be a successful project. Problems may pop up on the side of suppliers also. The company will now need to find new suppliers who will be providing materials on time; else significant losses will be incurred by the company. Producing the same quality of finish product will be primordial for the organisation in order to maintain its image on the market failure to do so will be disastrous. Similarly, implementing the green system within the company will mean; trainin g the employees. Employees will have to be trained to deal with the new approach and different method of work. Training may be costly and at the same time lowering productivity while employees are at their training session. 2.2 Supply Chain Management Supply chain management was views years ago, as the process of converting raw materials to finished products and finally delivered to the end-user (Bearmon, 1999). This process can therefore be defined as the extraction and exploitation of the natural resources gifted by the nature (Srivastava, 2007). It is hence very important to note that environmental sustainability has been something primordial since the last decades in business practice. Since the early 1990`s companies were faced with the dilemma of implementing Environmental Management in their supply chains (Wu Dann, 1995) which is however not an easy task. Therefore the green concept to the supply chain of business increases the level of competitiveness among firms which will have a direct relation to the environment. This therefore gave rise to the Green Supply Chain Management. (GrSCM) 2.2.1 Green Supply Chain Management Green Supply Chain Management is the revolutionized version of the traditional supply chain. This involves a direction relationship with the environment. The quality revolution in the late 1980s and the supply chain revolution in the early 1990s has awaken several business conscience to become environmental friendly (Srivastava, 2007, p. 53). Green Supply Chain Management became not just a simple fad, as it aimed at both practionners and academics in waste-reduction programs as well as preserving the quality of the products` life and the natural resource. In order to achieve excellence in business, Eco-Efficiency and renewably processes became something most businesses shall be adopting (Ashley, 1993; Srivastava, 2007). Businesses are bearing the pressure of both governmental and global market demands to become more sustainable (Guide Srivastava, 1998; Gungor Gupta, 1999). Waste management is another topic that pop up from the GrSCM literature. This proved its importance with the work of Roy and Whelan (1992). It therefore gave rise to a standardized model for reducing electronic waste without harming the environment. As a result of this, different waste management issues came into context which emphasized mainly on recycling and remanufacturing. Owen (1930), Hannah and Newman (1995); Sarkis and Cordeiro (2001) and Nagorney and Toyasaki (2005) are all examples of trends of waste management becoming an issue. 2.2.2 Green Design Green design is an important sub-part in the Green Supply Chain Management. It states that each product or service should be design in such a way that it encourages environmental awareness. Beamon (1999) developed ISO14000 which was introduced as a result of the Rio Summit on the Environment in 1992. Tremendous pressure groups were for the fact that firms should encourage greening in their respective supply chain. In 1991, the first green design literature came to existence. NavinChandras (1991) pointed out the first literature in order to reduce the number of wastage that is more businesses going green. Works of Ashley (1993); Allenby and Richards (1994) and Zhang, Kuo, Lu and Huang (1997) came into context and expanded the framework of green design. Life-cycle analysis was an example of a framework that came out of green design. Works of Arena, Mastellone and Perugini (2003), Beamon (1999) and De Ron Penev (1995) all discussed life-cycle analysis as a framework. 2.2.3 Reverse Logistics Reverse Logistics (RL) is the complete reversal of the traditional or forward logistics (Beamon, 1999). Reverse logistics was defined as a process where manufacturers accept products which were shipped from the previous point for consumption which will be possibly use for recycling and re-manufacturing Dowlatshahi (2000) and Carter and Ellram (1998). Fiksel (1996) argues that becoming eco-friendly towards products re-manufacturing had a chance to emerge in some firms. Heavy industries having complex supply chains should see that they benefit from the reverse logistics (RL). Thierry, Wassenhove, Van Nunen and Salomon (1995) supported the fact that automobile industries were making full use of reverse logistics; examples would be: BMW and General Motors. The trend does not end only with those companies, Hewlett Packard, Storage Tek and TRW were also using reverse logistics as a supply chain process. All this were done in the simple main aim to remain competitive in their respective ind ustries (Srivastava, 2007). (Srivastava, 2007) stated that collection is the first stage in every recovery process. Products are then selected, assembled and transported to facilities for re-manufacturing. Used products came from various sources, but then had to be transferred to one particular place so that the converging process can begin (Thierry et al., 1995). It was also claimed that sorting and recycling are very essential mechanism in the process of sorting reusable products. The collection schemes were done on the basis of whether the materials were separated by the consumer (separation at source) or centralized (mixed waste) Cairncross (1992) and Srivastava (2007). Hence the main aim was to sort products so that it can be reused to reduce costs of making new products which is diagrammatically represented on the next page: Source: Jamal Fortes. (2009). Green Supply Chain Management: A Literature Review, Otago Management Graduate Review 2.3 Empirical Literature Review According to the empirical studies carried on in order to test the relationship between the firm`s performance and environmental concerns it was found that the results varied. Some results delivered positive results (Judge and Douglas, 1998; King and Lenox, 2002; Melnyk et al., 2003) while on the contrary some did not identified positive outcomes of environmental proactivity on businesses` performance (Cordeiro and Sarkis, 1997; Gilley et al., 2000; Link and Naveh, 2006). In addition to the above, it was found that firms are facing various pressures from both within the company and governmental parties to become more responsible and at the same time greener. Those pressures have as main aim to reduce the level of impact of firms on the natural environment and the society as a whole. As a matter of fact, social responsibility and being conscious about the environment are being integral among nowadays firms. Hence, the most important issue is about these aspects and the financial performance of the business. That is, in other words, are firms being able to protect the environment as well as being profitable? Bowen (1953) supported the fact that corporate social responsibility is not the remedy and thus it will not cure the society of all its ills immediately, but he thinks that it a new venture that should be supported and implemented by each organization who wants to survive in the industry. He also argued that the social responsibilities of businessme n also known as the obligations of firms must follow the policies which will be beneficial to the society as a whole. Josà © F. Molina-Azorà ­n, Enrique Claver-Cortà ©s, Maria D. Là ³pez-Gamero, Juan J. Tarà ­, (2009),Green management and financial performance: a literature review, Management Decision, Vol. 47 Iss: 7 pp. 1080 1100 Moreover, it is found that, the pressure exerted by environmental management on firm performance, this influence can really help firms to cut down on their costs while at the same time respecting the environment. Reducing or if possible prevent pollution will allow the firm to save on control costs, input, and energy consumption, and to recycle used materials (Hart, 1997; Taylor, 1992). Thus, producing and delivering goods while simultaneously reducing the ecological impact and use of resources will surely help the firm to attain eco-efficiency (Schmidheiny, 1992; Starik and Marcus, 2000). However, on the contrary, those firms which continue to pollute the environment are therefore regarded as a sign of inefficiency (Porter and Van der Linde, 1995). Companies must learn to view environmental improvement in terms of resource productivity. Managers should not only focus on the costs of eliminating or treating pollution, they should review their approach, and thus pay more attention to the cost they have forgone while polluting the environment, in other words, the opportunity of pollution. (wasted resources, wasted effort, and diminished product value to the customer). In addition to the above, it is found that by using practical environmental strategies, firms can eliminate wastages, redesign existing product systems to reduce life cycle impacts, and therefore develop new products with lower life cycle costs (Hart, 1995). If ever organizations go deeper to extend their strategies, this will surely help them to achieve organizational efficiency. In fact, by responding to market pressures firms may save costs so as to achieve greater production efficiency and gathering gains which are easily obtained associated with reducing excessive wastes, material, and energy use. (Hart and Ahuja, 1996) Therefore, it should be noted that green management can provide opportunities to lessen costs while simultaneously increase revenues. Ambec and Lanoie (2008) argued the fact that there are four possible opportunities for companies to use in order to reduce costs (risk management and relations with external stakeholders; cost of material, energy, and services; cost of capital; and cost of labor) and three opportunities to increase revenues (better access to certain markets; differentiating products; and selling pollution-control technology). Furthermore, environmental management can help to maintain and improve relationships between the different stakeholders as well as reducing the level of conflicts between them which can sometimes prove to be costly (Hull and Rothenberg, 2008). Organizations maintaining good relationships with their stakeholders are likely to achieve success much more effectively than competitors (Donaldson and Preston, 1995). Similarly, while creating, developing and maintaining ties with the stakeholders it will surely help to better financial performance of the companies (Jones, 1995; Brammer and Millington, 2008). In the case of the influence of green management impacting on corporate environmental performance, did not generate a clear result. While some studies showed positive impacts. For example, Dasgupta et al. (2000) found positive effects of green management measures on self-assessed compliance with environmental regulations. Anton et al. (2004) found that the Environment Management System helps to reduce the level of toxic emission, and Potoski Prakash (2005) found that companies which have been already certified ISO 14001 reduce their level of pollution more than non-certified ones. Hence, these studies point out to possible problems with regard to their measures of green management and therefore try to develop approaches which shall be useful to such problems. However, their instruments based on cross-sectional data are not fully convincing. In the sense that, Dahlstrà ¶m et al. (2003) did not find that the ISO 14001 certification improves the compliance with environmental regulatio ns and Lenox and Nash (2003) even showed that firms which are less environmental friendly are more attracted to public voluntary environmental programs. Besides, it should be noted that the measures for corporate environmental performance such as toxic emissions or the compliance with environmental regulations are mostly one-dimensional indicators, meaning they look at one facet of the coin. There is more technological environmental performance whi

I Am Against the Death Penalty Essays -- Capital Punishment Argumentat

I Am Against the Death Penalty The death penalty is the worst that can happen to a criminal if he is tried for murder, treason, or airplane hijacking. This is a very touchy subject for politicians also. Many politicians will not even speak about it for fear of looking too soft on crime, or, if they are in favor of it they will look too barbaric and uncivilized. A recent poll shows that the American population is split nearly half-and-half on the topic. In the poll, 41% preferred the death penalty, 44% were against it and 15% were unsure (Death Penalty Info). Of the fifty states, thirty-eight states use the death penalty plus the U.S. Government and Military (Death Penalty Info). Twelve states plus the District of Columbia do not use it (Death Penalty Info). From the thirty-eight states that use capital punishment, seven of them, and the U.S. Government and U.S. Military have not executed any criminals since 1977.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I am against the death penalty because of many reasons. I feel that government sanctioned killing is wrong in whatever form it comes, whether that be killing an unborn baby during an abortion, killing an elderly person by euthanasia, or killing a criminal by the electric chair. When I think of the death penalty, an old saying comes to my mind; ?Two wrongs don?t make a right.? I feel this is exactly the opposite of what the government should stand for. There is no way to make up for murder, treason, or airplane hijacking, and many times the criminal ...

Physics of Skiing :: physics ski skiing

The sport of skiing has been around for thousands of years, originally existing solely as a form of transportation. Today the sport is entirely dependent upon the laws of physics, and has even had advancements through reliance on physics. There are two types of Nordic Skiing. These are Classic (or diagonal) and Skate Skiing. Usually these two forms are raced separate. To be fair, there are actually two slightly different forms of skate skiing; V1 and V2. As these can get very very complicated and precise in the technique, I will focus mainly on classic skiing, which is also the type of skiing that most people are familiar with. Cross-Country Skiing is the most basic form of skiing, even preceding downhill skiing. Primitive skis may have even been used about 3000 B.C. in Norway. There have been cave drawing found that seem to depict men on skis. Skiing has its roots in Scandinavia; Vikings used skis as a form of transportation in the 10th century A.D. Early skis were made of wood, and even the word ski comes from the Norse word skith a stick of wood. Norse skies were very rudimentary, little more than snowshoes. Glide was little to none. It was not until the early 1800s when Sondre Norheim changed the face of skiing and gave skis glide that the sport was introduced to the world. Competitive skiing started in the late 1800s, again in Norway. In the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, Nordic Skiing as we know it was added. Today the sport has evolved to be both extremely competitive and leisurely. In the past 30 years the sport has changed dramatically, adding skis made of synthetic materials, and utilizing waxes for improved speed. Physicists have been at the front line of all this; from determining the coefficent of friction for both the wax and the ski, to helping skiers change their technique based on the laws of physics. To maximize speed, Nordic skiing is more about form than probably any other sport. Brute strength and athletic prowess certainly have their advantages, but these pale in comparision to proper technique. While the shape of classic skis is slightly different than that of skate skis, the real difference is that classic skis have a "kick zone." This is a spot directly underneath the foot that has kick wax applied to it. Kick wax is a sticky poly-hydrocarbon that in theory is only supposed to provide a sticky surface from which to push back from.

Attribution Theory

Discuss the types of attribution someone makes when they appraise a person’s behaviour. How may bias occur in their reasoning particularly if they have a very different background to the person they observe? Attribution theory focuses on ways in which we gather and process information in order to come up with judgements and explanations for people’s behaviours and personalities or as explained by Fiske & Taylor (1991) â€Å"how the social perceiver uses information to arrive at casual explanations for events.It examines what information is gathered and how it’s combined to form casual judgements†. There have been many studies aimed at explaining the main errors people make when making inferences about people’s behaviour and whether culture has an effect on how we make attributions. There are two types of attributions, internal attributions, also known as dispositional attributions, are when we attribute behaviour to person’s disposition (ment al state, personality, emotions, characteristics, etc. ).External attributions (also known as situational attributions) can be explained as attributing behaviour to the situation or the environment in which the behaviour took place. Correspondent inference (Jones & Davis, 1965) can be explained as when the observer infers that the actor’s behaviour corresponds with their motives (an internal attribution). A correspondence bias is when the observer over-attributes the cause of behaviour to dispositional factors at the expense of situational antecedents.This can also be explained as the fundamental attribution error (Lee Ross, 1977). Another believed to be error in attribution is suppressing dispositional inferences during social judgement, which leads to the dispositional rebound (Geeraert & Yzerbyt, 2007), meaning relying on dispositional inferences in subsequent judgements. It is believed that a judgement begins with a dispositional bias and situational information is to cor rect the initial judgement (Quattrone, 1992), this is called situational correction.Geeraert & Yzerbyt state that the observer must suppress dispositional judgements during the correctional stage and deal with the dispositional rebound in subsequent stages. Furthermore, a cause of the FAE (fundamental attribution error) could potentially be the fact that the observer may not see much to gain in making the effort to analyse the situational causes of a certain behaviour and too cognitively demanding (Andrews, 2001).However, due to the fact that they have greater incentives to predict and influence behaviour, people who tend to depend on others are less likely to make erroneous attributions, which explains why people from more interdependent cultures (such as East Asians) tend to avoid the FAE (Choi et al, 1999) in contrast with people from more independent cultures (such as Europeans or Americans).To further elaborate on this point, numerous psychologists believe that culture may have a determining effect on whether the observer is prone to excessively relying on dispositional judgements. This is shown in Choi & Nisbett’s 1998 study, which was in line with Snyder & Jones’ 1974 study, where a group of Korean and American participants were given the task of writing an essay with a designated position.They were then asked to judge a forced writer (a writer which wrote a piece as a forced task, whether or not what they were writing reflected their own beliefs). In contrast with the previous study, the Americans’ judgements were not affected, however, the Koreans no longer displayed correspondence bias when the situational forces were made salient. Kitayama and Miyamoto carries out a similar study, including Japanese and American students and as predicted, the Americans displayed correspondence bias, while the Japanese students did not.Moreover, with the aim of discovering whether the dispositional rebound occurs amongst people of East Asian back ground and using the dispositional rebound as a tool to study the process of attribution, a study was carried out which participants consisting of 105 students from Hogeschool Gent, Belgium and 128 students from Kasestart University in Bangkok, Thailand, were given the task of judging a free or forced writer in the attitude attribution paradigm. The diagnosticity of the essays were manipulated in order to have participants also judge the essays based on whether they were diagnostic or not.Thai students were more sensitive to the manipulation of the diagnosticity of the essays, whilst the Belgian participants showed no sensitivity at all. Both ethnic groups displayed symptoms of the dispositional rebound when judging a diagnostic forced essay, however, Belgian participants were the only ones to display the dispositional rebound when judging a non-diagnostic essay. Subsequently, participants were asked to judge a series of pictorially represented behaviours. Both Belgian and Thai part icipants displayed the dispositional rebound when the situational information was hidden.However, Thai participants no longer displayed the dispositional rebound when the situational information was made salient (also discovered by Choir & Nisbett in their 1998 study and Miyanoto & Kitayama in their 2002 study). A further explanation of the dispositional rebound could be that it is the ironic consequence of suppression and correction of an initial dispositional judgment as a result of cognitive fatigue due to the fact that the judgment of a constrained target demands a larger amount of cognitive effort which due to the reduction of cognitive resources, leaves some observers to rely on less demanding abstract language.Furthermore, several other studies which have directly focused on the universality of the correspondence bias (Choi & Nisbett, 1998; Kashima, Siegal, Tanaka, & Kashima, 1992; Krull et al. , 1999; Van Boven, Kamada, & Gilovich, 1999) have shown that people from interdepe ndent cultures aren’t immune to erroneous attributions .In these studies, both East Asians and Americans were given the task of judging a constrained target in the context of the attitude attribution paradigm (this requires participants to read an essay which either favours or opposes a particular issue under the conditions that participants are told whether or not the writer had a choice in selecting the viewpoint which the essay reflects), the perceiver induced constraint paradigm (this requires participants to ask a target to read out a pre-written attitudinal statement, then comply observe the target and then try to figure out the target’s true attitude) and the quiz paradigm.The results showed that regardless of culture, all participants displayed correspondence bias. These findings may suggest that culture may not determine whether an observer is prone to erroneous attributions. In conclusion, it seems that the most erroneous method in our ways of making social j udgments is our tendency to rely excessively on dispositional information when doing so and ironically suppressing our dispositional inferences which instinct seems to enforce the occurrence of, seems to cause a rebound effect in subsequent social judgments.But, it also seems that being raised in a society where it is the norm to be dependent on one another, tends to make one naturally more sensitive to informational information when it is there to be sensed and therefore more able to make accurate inferences about behaviour and mental states.

Impression Formation Study

Abstract This report is based on impression formation. A study was conducted to see if the order of information presented about a hypothetical person to a participant has an effect on their impression final first impression of that person.Participants from London Metropolitan University (80 participants) were put into two groups, in which they were asked to rate their impression of a hypothetical person with a list of given adjectives (positive and negative), first they are given words that describe this hypothetical person, the describing words were identical, just presented in different orders, depending on which one (of the two) groups the participant was placed in. It was found that a more positive opinion was described for the hypothetical person in which the participants heard positive to negative adjectives compared to that of the negative to positive adjectives.Intro A topic that has been explored in psychology is how people come up with first impressions, and what informatio n is important to help form impressions. The question asked here was simply; how do people form impressions of theirs based on limited information. The founder of research into this field was Asch (1946), who was worried about the principles behind forming impressions. Asch (1946) conducted a study where, he had two groups, in which both were given lists of words in different orders according to which group the participants were assigned to.Asch found that the group given the positive words followed by the negative words developed a more positive first impression than the group who received the words negative words then given the positive words. He concluded that the first words are the words that are most important and are the traits that are remembered this is called the primacy effect. However other research shows that the primacy effect isn’t always the one remembered, and the most recent (recency effect) adjectives may be the adjectives that influence the participant.Thi s may happen in situations where the participant has been given too much information; or they are tired and lack motivation and if these factors are not present, the more common effect is the primacy effect. It was concluded that the primacy effect is the main view to how people form impressions and it was stated that the first adjectives used are the most important and have a lot more influences then the later adjectives. The aim of this experiment is to build on the findings of Asch’s configural model and this study aims to replicate the results achieved by Asch.This study will employ the same design, two groups under different conditions. The lists of words are as follows, positive – negative intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, and envious. Negative – positive envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious and intelligent. Thereafter the participants were asked to describe the hypothetical person with a set of adjectives (positive an d negative, and asked to apply these to the hypothetical person (generous-mean, sociable-unsociable, reliable-unreliable, polite-rude, pleasant-unpleasant).From these it was worked out whether the impression was more positive or negative. There are different sorts of hypothesis which could have been explored. It has been decided that hypothesis will be directional, casual hypothesis. The hypothesis of the experiment is that, Participants who are given traits, positive – negative will have a more positive view of the hypothetical person. Which means that the participants given trait negative – positive traits will have a more negative view to that hypothetical person. Method ParticipantsThe amount of participants used was a figure of 80 participants, this was divided into two groups of 40, one group which would receive the traits negative – positive and the other to receive positive to negative. The participants were students at London metropolitan university, wh ich consisted of an age range 17 to 44 years, Mean = 21. 35, Standard Deviation = 4. 67. There were 56 females and 24 males. The participants were treated in accordance to the ethical principles of the BPS and gave consent and were told they could withdraw at any point.Materials and/or Apparatus The materials used in this experiment included a computer, the size of the screen was 17 inches, where trait lists were used, and the trait list for the positive – negative group goes as follows; intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, and envious. The other group received the exact same words, just backwards which goes as follows; envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious, and intelligent. The words were viewed on a white back ground with a font size on 28 and font type of Calibri.The other apparatus involved included an online questionnaire. Procedure The participants were told they would be shown a screen of words, and were told that after viewing the wor ds they should form an impression of a hypothetical person and will have to answer an online questionnaire which according to the hypothesis should help us gain results which will contribute to research towards primacy effect. The participants were shown their respective trait lists, depending on the group they were assigned to. Each word was shown for 3 seconds with an interval of 1. seconds between trait adjectives, after being shown the words the participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire which consisted of 6 questions. To test the hypothesis, we must calculate the mean score and standard deviation for all participants in both groups. Starting with the positive – negative and ending with the negative to positive group. Results The results of the experiments are as follows; the group that received the positive to negative traits, mean average was M=3. 4 and the standard deviation SD= 0. 84.The results for the group which received the trait adjectives from n egative to positive had different results, the results are as follows, the mean was M=2. 72 and the standard deviation SD=0. 83 Discussion The hypothesis at the start stated the group which was given the positive – negative traits would develop a better and more positive impression, then the group who received the traits in the order of negative – positive. This has proven to be the case as the higher the mean number, the more positive the impression formed and noted by the participants, through answering the questions of the online questionnaire.The results which support the hypothesis support the theory of the primacy effect, which is consistent with and supports Asch’s (1946) previous work. However just looking at the results of the experiment without no averages or means, a couple of scores stood out, where participants in the positive to negative group formed an impression of the hypothetical person, which didn’t support the hypothesis, there was als o scores from the negative – positive group which didn’t support the hypothesis, which means recency effect was something that also took place in this experiment.Future research could include the same experimental design, however, it might be better if the research produced more qualitative data, this could be accomplished, by simply changing the online questionnaire into an interview, where the thought of the impressions formed can be noted, this may help can a better overall understanding, and would be a lot more useful than some of the statistics presented.References E. Bruce Goldstein, (2005). Cognitive Psychology; connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Perception 55- 75 Langdridge, D. , & Hagger-Johnson, G. (2009). Introduction to research methods and data analysis in psychology (2nd edition). Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Global Inequalities Essay

Global inequality generally means that the total income and wealth is spread out unevenly across the world. Almost half of the work (3 billion people) live on less that $2.50 per day, and the majority of these people love in extremely poor countries. There’s a pattern to show that the least developed countries lie in Africa compared to the rest of the world, however there are multiple reasons for this situation; The Conflict Trap, The Natural Resource Trap, The Landlocked with Bad Neighbours Trap, and The Poor Governance in a Small Country Trap. I will talk about each reason in order according to which i believe are most important. Poor governance in a small country is one of the main reasons as to why we have many global inequalities around the world. This is because a poor, corrupted government try to discourage Transnational Companies to locate in their country in order to avoid any wealth being taken out of their economy. This prevents peoples chances of having a job and earning a regular income for a stable lifestyle. Economic isolation leads to a country being globally isolated, this is difficult as everyone is reliant on their government to bring income, however this can’t happen because TNC’s are discouraged. In addition to this, even if a stable government was to take over, its extremely difficult to regain the economy and takes on average 52 years. The second most important factor i believe, is the landlocked with bad neighbours trap. This is because 38% of the poorest countries are landlocked, with the majority of them being in Africa. This is because if you are a coastal country, then you have the freedom to trade with anyone around the world, however when you are landlocked, you are only able to trade with your begun outing countries. However, some countries such as Switzerland and Austria have managed to cope with the issue, implying that a being landlocked is just a potential contributing factor to being economically unequal. A solution for this is to encourage remittances – so encourage some people to emigrate to earn money then send it back home to family for it then to be spent in their economy. This can slowly help  strengthen the economy. I believe the next most important factor would be the conflict trap. Because feel oped nations have had their civil wars in the past however they have managed to release themselves of the unfortunate cycle, however some of the poorest nations generally get trapped in the violent cycle, and any money generated is instantly spent on weaponry. These poorest countries have a substantial amount of young men, who eventually end up turning to crime and recruit into rebel groups because they have nothing else to do, so they have nothing to lose. There is a huge correlation between education and crime, because these men are less educated, the crime is higher. There is also a further correlation between civil unrest and the wealth of a country, showing that the less wealth a country has, the more civil unrest there is. Finally, the last contributing factor to global inequalities is the raw materials trap. This is when a country only has one type of raw material and are extremely reliant on this source to provide their country’s wealth, so they lack diversity. This is a very risky method because the resources are generally non-renewable and the reliance is so high, meaning that if it fails or runs out then they will be in a poor, failing economic state. They will lose all income and won’t be able to afford any imports from other countries, so they will not be able to provide necessities for their country. In conclusion to this essay, i believe that the poor governance in a small country is the main contributing factor to global inequalities, because i believe that every country has the potential to regain the strength in their economy, but with a corrupt government that generally keep money for themselves.