The Emerging Role of Electronic Markets

Internet-based electronic marketplaces leverage information technology to match buyers and sellers with increased effectiveness and lower transaction costs, leading to more efficient, â€Å"friction-free† markets. The Emerging Role of Electronic Marketplaces on the Internet Markets play a central role in the economy, facilitating the Yannis Bakos exchange of information, goods, services, and payments. In the process, they create economic value for buyers, sellers, market intermediaries, and for society at large.Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the role of information technology in markets, both in traditional markets, and in the emergence of electronic marketplaces, such as the multitude of Internet-based online auctions. Functions of a Market Markets (electronic or otherwise) have three main functions, summarized in Table 1: matching buyers and sellers; facilitating the exchange of information, goods, services and payments associated with market transactions; and providing an institutional infrastructure, such as a legal and regulatory framework, that enables the efficient functioning of the market.In a modern economy, the first two functions are provided by intermediaries, while the institutional infrastructure is typically the province of governments. Internet-based electronic marketplaces leverage information technology to perform these functions with increased effectiveness and reduced transaction costs, resulting in more efficient, â€Å"friction-free† markets. Matching Buyers and Sellers. Markets â€Å"clear† by matching demand and supply. This process of matching buyers’ demand with sellers’ product offerings has three main components: determining Matching uyers and sellers †¢ Determination of product offerings – Product features offered by sellers – Aggregation of different products †¢ Search (of buyers for sellers and of sellers for buyers) – Price and product information à ¢â‚¬â€œ Matching seller offerings with buyer preferences †¢ Price discovery – Process and outcome in determination of prices Facilitation of transactions†¢ Logistics – Delivery of information, good, or service to buyer †¢ Settlement – Transfer of payment to seller †¢ Trust – Credit system, reputations, rating agencies like Consumer Reports and Better Business Bureaus Institutional infrastucture †¢ Legal – Commercial code, contract law, dispute resolution, intellectual property protection †¢ Regulatory – Rules and regulations, monitoring, enforcement Table 1. Functions of a market COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM August 1998/Vol. 41, No. 8 35 Establishing a dialogue and a sense of community among customers can create value by enabling the sharing of experiences, problems and solutions, but also allows the collection of important information about individual consumers. product offerings, search, and price discovery. The behavior of buyers, sellers, and intermediaries is motivated by their desire to maximize their private utility. When markets function well, this also leads to an efficient allocation of productive resources. Viewed this way, markets are the engine and steering system of our economy.Markets provide sellers with information about demand that allows them to employ economic inputs such as capital, technology and labor, and develop products with characteristics that match the needs of buyers. Sellers determine a schedule of product offerings that they expect will maximize their profits based on: †¢ information about buyer demand; †¢ the cost of inputs; †¢ the available technology for production and distribution of the information, goods and services purchased by the buyers; and, †¢ the transaction costs of administering production, distribution, and payment. Buyers select their purchases from the available product offerings after considering factors such as price and product characteristics. In obtaining and processing this information, buyers face search costs.These osts include the opportunity cost of time spent searching, as well as associated expenditures such as driving, telephone calls, computer fees, magazine subscriptions, etc. Typically, sellers exploit these search costs by raising their prices, and thus enjoy higher profits. Similarly sellers may face search costs in locating qualified buyers for their products, such as market research, advertising and sales calls. A key function of markets in our economic system is price discovery, which is the process of determining the prices at which demand and supply â€Å"clear† and trade occurs. For certain markets, such as financial markets, this is their primary function.Markets can employ a number of mechanisms for price discovery. 36 August 1998/Vol. 41, No. 8 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM For instance, some financial markets use one or more of the several types of auctions to determine prices, such as the â€Å"call market† auction at the opening of a trading day at the New York Stock Exchange, when bids are accepted up to a certain time and exchange occurs when the market opens. This is the first price that is communicated via the stock market ticker to the market at large, kicking off a day of â€Å"continuous market† trading. Other markets, such as the traditional automobile dealership, employ negotiation between buyers and sellers until a price is reached.In still other markets, such as the typical department store, merchants make firm offers that customers can either take or leave. Facilitation of Transactions. The matching function of a market establishes a bilateral relationship between a buyer and a seller. After a transaction is agreed upon, the product sold must be transported to the buyer (logistics), and payment must be transferred to the seller (settlement). Markets typically incorporate mechanisms for logistics and settlement: when a tr avel agent uses an airline reservations system to book a flight, the system will generate the itinerary and the ticket, and will process a credit card payment.Furthermore, market transactions require the establishment of a certain level of trust, which protects buyers, sellers and intermediaries from the opportunistic behavior of other market participants. For instance, this trust role may include banks issuing letters of credit, credit reporting bureaus, or rating agencies such as Consumer Reports and Better Business Bureaus, which keep track of product information and seller reputations, and thus discourage opportunistic behavior. Finally, markets provide the physical infrastructure that allows transactions between the buyers and the sellers to take place. This includes real assets such as physical structures and trading floors, computers and communication networks, and transportation systems. Institutional Infrastructure.The institutional infrastructure specifies the laws, rules and regulations that govern market transactions, such as issues related to contract law, dispute resolution, and intellectual property protection, and provides mechanisms for their enforcement. In addition, the dynamics of electronic markets may raise certain antitrust issues. For example, there are large economies of scale in distribution, as a single online retailer or intermediary can serve a very large market. There are also potential demand-side economies of scale in payment mechanisms and software. These may lead to a winner-takeall market structure [1] with one or a few firms dominating the market. Purchasing a new home – Research city and neighborhood – Find a house – Inspections, title research, appraisals, contracts – Get a mortgage – Moving services – Decorators, furniture, etc. †¢ Planning a vacation – Research destination – Arrange accommodations and travel – Purchase maps, books, information – C heck out weather, items to take †¢ Purchasing a car – Research make and model – Select a dealer – Get a loan or arrange a lease – Purchase insurance Table 2. Components of consumer processes and transaction/distribution cost How the Internet Affects Markets Electronic marketplaces, especially Internet-based markets, are having a major impact on the roles of markets discussed previously [2, 12]. Product Offerings.Two major emerging trends distinguish products in electronic marketplaces from their traditional counterparts: increased personalization and customization of product offerings, and the aggregation and disaggregation of information-based product components to match customer needs and to support new pricing strategies. Electronic marketplaces support personalization and customization in two ways: †¢ Consumer tracking technology allows the identification of individual buyers; information about these buyers, such as relevant demographics, co nsumer profiles, or comparison with the known preferences of similar consumers, can be used to discover or estimate their specific preferences. Information-rich products lend themselves to cost-effective customization; for instance, delivering an electronic newspaper tailored to the interests of an individual reader need not be more costly than delivering the same copy to all subscribers. Current personalization and customization technologies use either rule-based systems like Broadvision (www. broadvision. com) that draw upon sets of expert rules, or collaborative filtering systems like the Firefly Network (www. firefly. net) that utilize the feedback and experiences of consumers with a profile of likes and dislikes similar to the targeted buyer. This allows the practice of â€Å"one-to-one marketing,† which is based on understanding individual consumers.For instance, establishing a dialogue and a sense of community among customers can create value by enabling the sharing of experiences, problems and solutions, but also allows the collection of important information about individual consumers. The ultimate objective is to provide customized services according to individual preferences, whether expressed or inferred. Increased selling effectiveness comes from being able to design appropriate products to address the needs of individual consumers, and from being able to identify the moment when a customer’s purchasing decision is most likely to occur and to be prepared for that moment, one step ahead of the competition. When determining their product mix, sellers must decide which product components or features will be included in each product offering.For example, the developer of an operating system must decide which features to implement, and whether they will be marketed and priced individually or in a single bundle. These decisions are driven by the relative cost of different product bundles, which includes the following types of costs: †¢ Production cost: the cost of producing additional units for inclusion in the bundle, including storage, processing, and communications costs incurred in the process. †¢ Transaction and distribution cost: the cost of distributing a bundle of goods and administering the related transactions, such as arranging for payment. †¢ Binding cost: the cost of binding the component goods together for distribution as a bundle, such as formatting changes necessary to include news stories from wire services in a newspaper bundle. Menu cost: the cost of administering multiple prices. If a mixed bundling strategy is pursued, where the available components are offered in different combinations, then a set of n goods may require as many as 2n prices (one for each subset of one or more goods). COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM August 1998/Vol. 41, No. 8 37 c Marginal Costs Mean Valuation c0 Marginal production, distribution, and transactions are high enough to make both bundled and unbundled Unbund led sales dominate sales unprofitable bundling Bundling is more profitable than unbundled sales Distribution Costs d Figure 1. Phase diagram for bundling and unbundling strategies as a function of marginal costInternet marketplaces are changing the constraints imposed by these costs and thus are fostering new types of intermediaries that create value by aggregating services and products that traditionally were offered by separate industries. For instance, Table 2 shows the components of three processes that generate value for consumers. In traditional markets, these components are provided by separate industries. A consumer in the market for a new car might select a make and model based on the experience collected from test drives, research from auto magazines and Consumer Reports, and recommendations from friends. She would then agree on price, order the vehicle, and take delivery through a car dealer, arrange financing through a bank, and purchase insurance from an insurance compa ny.By dramatically lowering the transaction, distribution and binding costs, the Internet has allowed intermediaries such as Auto-byTel (www. auto-by-tel. com) or Microsoft’s Carpoint (www. carpoint. com) to offer all of these products and services, with the exception of an actual test drive. Similar intermediaries are emerging in other areas, such as the Travelocity (www. travelocity. com) and Microsoft’s Expedia (www. expedia. com) travel services aggregators, or Microsoft’s Boardwalk Web site that will aggregate products and services related to real estate transactions. The Case of Information Goods. Digital information goods, such as news articles, digital images or music, allow perfect copies to be created and distributed almost without cost via the Internet.The Internet is thus precipitating a dramatic reduction in the marginal costs of production and distribution for these goods, while micropayment technologies are reducing the transaction costs for their commercial exchange. Bakos and Brynjolfsson [6] point out that this creates new opportunities for repackaging content through strategies such as bundling, site licensing, subscriptions, rentals, differential pricing and per-use fees. All of these schemes can be thought Figure 2. ComputerESP price comparison engine 38 August 1998/Vol. 41, No. 8 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM of as either aggregating or disaggregating information goods along some dimension.For instance, aggregation can take place across products, as when software programs are bundled for sale in a software suite or when access to various content of an online service is provided for a fixed fee. Aggregation can also take place across consumers, as with the provision of a site license to multiple users for a fixed fee, or over time, as with subscriptions. Many information goods have been bundled solely to save on transaction, distribution and menu costs, yet these costs are much lower on the Internet. Thus software and othe r types of content may be increasingly disaggregated and metered, as on-demand software applets or as individual news stories and stock quotes.Independent of the cost considerations mentioned previously, Bakos and Brynjolfsson [6] show that aggregation of arge numbers of information goods can be a powerful strategy that results in higher profits for sellers as well as a socially desirable wider distribution of the goods. This is due to the ability of aggregation to change the shape of the demand curve faced by the sellers to one that is easier to exploit. Aggregation can be a surprisingly profitable strategy when marginal production costs are low and consumers are homogeneous. Bakos and Brynjolfsson’s analysis provides a framework to understand the emergence of intermediaries that aggregate online content, such as America Online and Yahoo! , as well as the increasing use of subscription pricing in the sale of information goods by companies such as Netscape, Dow-Jones, or Reut ers.Figure 1 graphically summarizes this discussion and depicts the impact of marginal cost c and distribution/transaction cost d on the desirability of bundling large numbers of information goods. Search. Electronic marketplaces lower the buyers’ cost to obtain information about the price and product features of seller offerings as well as the sellers’ cost to communicate information about their prices and product characteristics. For instance, a buyer in the market for a 400MHz Pentium II microprocessor can easily compare the prices of different sellers by using a specialized search engine like Pricewatch (www. pricewatch. com) or ComputerESP (www. computeresp. com), as shown in Figure 2.Similarly, links to manufacturers’ Web sites can be used to obtain detailed information about the product features of different laptop computers. By lowering buyers’ search costs, electronic markets increase economic efficiency. Not only do buyers incur lower costs even after considering more product offerings, they also benefit from being able to identify and purchase products that better match their needs. Several Internet-based technologies assist buyers’ searching: multimedia, high bandwidth, and rating sites provide more product information. Search engines help buyers identify appropriate seller offerings. The search engines can be hierarchical directories (like Yahoo! , generic tools (like AltaVista in early 1998), or specialized tools that work best in the context of specific markets (such as Pricewatch and ComputerESP for computers and peripherals, or Expedia and Travelocity for airline tickets and other travel products).Intelligent agents such as Bargainfinder (bf. cstar. ac. com/bf) or Jango (www. jango. com) have been developed to scout the Web and compare product offerings by price or features on the behalf of the buyers. These technologies keep lowering buyers’ search costs. The lower search costs enable new markets to e merge. For example, low buyer search costs and global reach allowed Onsale. com (www. onsale. om) to create markets in goods like secondhand cameras; otherwise the search costs would be too high to enable potential buyers and sellers to find each other in a conventional market. Several other intermediaries are emerging to facilitate the process of matching buyers and sellers. Among many others they include Yahoo! , Pricewatch, Netbot’s Jango, and several other search engines, Web directories and shopping agents. They also include providers for product information (e. g. , CNet, trade magazines), recommendations and personalization (e. g. , Firefly Network), and information about sellers such as Bizrate. Price Discovery. Electronic marketplaces enable new types of price discovery to be employed in different markets.For example, some airlines auction last-minute unsold seats to the highest bidders, and Web-based auctions at Onsale. com have created for consumer goods markets th at function like the financial markets. Intermediaries such as Priceline (www. priceline. com) allow buyers to specify product requirements and the amount they’re willing to pay, and then make corresponding offers to the participating sellers, reversing the traditional functioning of retail markets. Finally, agents such as Kasbah (ecommerce. media. mit. edu/kasbah) and Tete-a-Tete (ecommerce. media. mit. edu/tete-a-tete) that can negotiate purchases on behalf of buyers and sellers, may restructure the price discovery process in Internet marketplaces [11].The ability to customize products, combined with the ability of sellers to access substantial information about prospective buyers, such as demographics, preferences and past shopping behavior, is greatly improving sellers’ ability to price discriminate—that COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM August 1998/Vol. 41, No. 8 39 is, to charge different prices for different buyers. Price discrimination is a powerful tool that al lows sellers to increase their profits, and reduces the consumer surplus enjoyed by buyers. On the other hand, price discrimination enables sellers to service buyers who would otherwise be priced out of the market, an outcome that increases economic efficiency.These new types of price discovery, such as the ability of buyers to make offers and the ability to conduct electronic negotiations between buyer and seller agents, are changing the â€Å"microstructure† of consumer markets. Finance theory has shown that market microstructure affects both the efficiency of markets and the bargaining power of their participants. The increasing importance of electronic commerce emphasizes the need to carry this type of research analysis to electronic marMarkketplaces. It is unclear who the beneficiaup ries of this process will be. The ability to r implement different price discovery mechanisms may result in more efficient marr/2 kets, thus benefiting buyers and hurting inefficient sellers . As menu costs decrease, sellers will move away from fixed pricing, and more prices will become negotiable [7].While savvy buyers may benefit, the 0 ability to negotiate prices may not be pleasant or result in a good deal, as many visitors to auto dealerships have discovered. Furthermore, when sellers are better informed, they are likely to increase their profits by charging different prices to different buyers. Economic theory predicts that buyers with more bargaining power, typically the more affluent ones, will fare better in this situation. Facilitation. The cost of logistics—the process of transporting products from the seller to the buyer— has been estimated at more than 10% of the GNP [8]. Electronic marketplaces improve information sharing between buyers and sellers, helping lower the cost of logistics and promoting quick, just-intime deliveries and reduced inventories.The distribution of information goods such as newspapers, music, videos and software, is lik ely to be completely transformed, as the information infrastructure will replace physical distribution systems. Sellers in Internet marketplaces are typically responsible for delivery to their customers, and increasingly contract with third-party providers for direct delivery from the manufacturer to the final consumer, reducing costs and time-to-delivery. Thus, direct sellers like Dell Computer are squeezing out traditional intermediaries such as wholesalers and distributors, while delivery providers such as FedEx and 40 August 1998/Vol. 41, No. 8 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACMUPS are emerging as major Internet intermediaries, because of their logistics expertise and their economies of scale in distribution. Electronic payment systems will further lower transaction costs in Internet marketplaces, and micropayment systems will lower the cost of small transactions, enabling new pricing strategies such as the metering of software use. As face-to-face marketplaces are replaced by electronic ones, there is increasing need to protect market participants from opportunistic behavior. Technologies such as public key cryptography can provide security and authentication of transactions, while intermediaries like Bizrate (www. bizrate. om) will use information from consumers to keep track of merchants’ reputaAs search costs fall from very high to moderate, new markets emerge, and both sellers and buyers benefit. However, if search costs continue to fall, market prices fall and sellers are made worse off, while buyers benefit from the lower prices and their improved ability to find products that fit their needs. r 2/4t r 2/t market breakdown buyer search cost Figure 3. The impact of buyer search costs in a differentiated market tions.Credit bureaus and credit card companies will provide credit information or guarantee payment for consumers. Finally, intermediaries like Verisign (www. verisign. om) are emerging as â€Å"certificate authorities† that match legal id entities to the possession of cryptographic keys—a public key infrastructure. Internet Marketplaces and Competition Impact of Lower Search Costs. The ability of Internet marketplaces to reduce search costs for price and product information may significantly affect competition. Bakos [4, 5] shows that lower buyer search costs in electronic marketplaces promote price competition among sellers. This effect will be most dramatic in commodity markets, where intensive price competition can eliminate all seller profits. It will also be significant in markets where products are differentiated, reducing the monopoly power enjoyed by sellers, and leading to lower prices and seller profits.Figure 3 shows the equilibrium prices for a differentiated good with zero marginal cost, which The dynamics of friction-free markets are not attractive for sellers that had previously depended on geography or customer ignorance to insulate them from the low-cost sellers in the market. consumers value at r and has a degree of differentiation t. As search costs fall from very high to moderate, new markets emerge, and both sellers and buyers benefit. However, if search costs continue to fall, sellers are made worse off since buyers can more easily find the lowest-cost seller, while buyers benefit from the lower prices and their improved ability to find products that fit their needs.The dynamics of friction-free markets are not attractive for sellers that had previously depended on geography or customer ignorance to insulate them from the low-cost sellers in the market. As geography becomes less important, new sources of product differentiation, such as customized features or service or innovation, will become more important, at least for those sellers who don’t have the lowest cost of production. Also, like an arms race in which both sides develop increasingly powerful weapons, sellers can exploit the reduction in menu costs to compensate for the lower search costs in electr onic marketplaces. Specifically, sellers can make it difficult to compare the price of alternative product offerings, and they can attempt to collect information about buyers that allows more effective price discrimination.Airlines, for example, have implemented extremely complicated and ever-changing fare structures, flight restrictions, and ticket availability, sometimes offering hundreds of fares for travel between certain pairs of destinations. It is also interesting to note that when informational inefficiencies prevail, a large number of sellers does not necessarily result in a competitive and efficient market. If search costs are high, individual sellers do not have a strong incentive to lower their prices because few buyers would discover them. As the number of sellers increases, it becomes more difficult for buyers to locate discounters, and thus the market may become more monopolistic as the number of sellers increases!This behavior is likely in certain markets with little or no advertising, such as some markets for professional legal and medical ser- ices. Internet marketplaces could provide price cutters with the means to reach a larger fraction of the buyers, and thus undermine the monopolistic nature of these markets. While there is much speculation about the effect that electronic marketplaces have on prices, thus far there has been little systematic analysis. One exploratory study by Bailey and Brynjolfsson [3] did not find much evidence that prices on the Internet were lower than prices for the same goods sold via traditional retail channels. Their analysis was based on data from 52 Internet and conventional retailers for 337 distinct titles of books, music compact discs, and software.Bailey and Brynjolfsson provide several possible explanations for their unexpected findings, including the possibility that searching on the Internet during the sample period was not as easy as is sometimes assumed, that the demographics of the typical Internet u ser encouraged a higher price equilibrium, that many of the Internet retailers were still experimenting with pricing strategies, and that Internet retailers were differentiating their products (for example, via delivery options or customized recommendations). Clearly, more empirical research is needed in this area. Increasing Differentiation and Lowering the Cost of Product Information. A higher degree of product differentiation leads to an increase in seller profits, which may partially or completely offset the decrease caused by lower search costs. Sellers in electronic markets will thus want increasingly to differentiate their products, possibly utilizing the personalization and customization technologies discussed earlier.Buyers in a differentiated market face two types of search costs: the cost of obtaining price information and the cost of obtaining information about the product characteristics of a seller’s offering. If sellers can control the type of electronic market introduced, they should favor a system emphasizing product information rather than price-shopping. COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM August 1998/Vol. 41, No. 8 41 A key variable for such a system is the cost of product information relative to the cost of price information about the product. For instance, an electronic marketplace designed to promote priceshopping makes it easy to compare price information, but might still require a higher-cost inquiry (such as a visit) to obtain detailed product information.For example, a buyer looking for a computer monitor on the Internet can easily compare prices from a large number of sellers, but then must obtain and evaluate the monitors’ specifications, assess the sellers’ reputations and return policies, and ideally locate a display model at a showroom or at a colleague’s office. By contrast, an electronic marketplace can be designed to promote competition based on product features. For example, high-quality multimedia product descriptions in standardized formats could help identify product offerings matching the buyer’s preferences, while price information could be left out of these descriptions or could be obscured by offering a large number of prices and making it difficult for the buyers to figure out which price actually applies. tained as electronic intermediaries gain a significant market share. Instead, the physical experience component might be unbundled to a physical intermediary.Auto-by-Tel, for example, may pay a fee to the intermediary where the test drive took place, a service that could be provided by a traditional dealership, but also by a specialized showroom or a car rental company. Internet-based electronic marketplaces are still at a formative stage, and it is hard to fully predict their impact on the structure of markets. However it is becoming clear that they will promote greater economic efficiency, and help sustain economic growth. In the process, they are creating major tra nsformations, full of strategic opportunities for intermediaries ready to compete by adding value for buyers and sellers rather than by exploiting information asymmetries.  References 1. Arthur, B. Increasing returns and the new world of business. Harvard Business Rev. , (July–Aug. 1996), 100–109. 2. Bailey, J. and Bakos, Y. An exploratory study of the emerging role of electronic intermediaries. International J. Electronic Commerce 1, 3 (Spring 1997).3. Bailey, J. and Brynjolfsson, E. In search of friction-free markets: An exploratory analysis of prices for books, CDs and software sold on the Internet. In Proceedings of the 25th Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (Alexandria, VA, Sept. 1997). www. stern. nyu. edu/~bakos/big. pdf.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

After his mother dies giving birth to him on the day of victory in World War I in 1918, Benjamin is taken by his father, Thomas Button (Jason Flemyng), and deposited on the doorstep of a home for the elderly. That is fitting since the infant looks like an 80-year-old man with sagging skin, cataracts, and wrinkles all over is body. Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), an African-American attendant at the place, finds him. She immediately decides that baby who is â€Å"as ugly as an old pot† is a child of God who must be cared for, no matter how difficult that may be. And so Benjamin (Brad Pitt) the man-child grows up in the presence of elders who share their stories with him and accept him as one of their own; they are all outsiders in a country where youth is worshipped and the elderly are viewed as obsolete. Benjamin starts out in a wheelchair and proves himself to be a great listener: everyone wants to tell him what they've been through in life. A man with a poor memory points out again and again that he was struck by lightening seven different times. â€Å"God keeps reminding me I'm lucky to be alive. A wealthy woman who keeps to herself teaches him to play the piano. A gregarious visitor, an African bushman (Rampai Mohadi), takes a fancy to the man-boy and introduces him the joys of sex in a bordello. At the age of 12, Benjamin looks about 70. He meets Daisy (Elle Fanning), the granddaughter of one of the residents at the home. They become instant friends and forge a bond which will last for a long time. In fact, Benjamin's story is shown i n flashbacks as Daisy lies near death's door in New Orleans at the time of Katrina. As the winds howl outside, her 40-year-old daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond) reads to her from a diary filled with pictures and postcards about this strange man who played such a major role in her life. At age 17, Benjamin is much younger and stronger. He leaves New Orleans for life aboard a tugboat that is piloted by Mike (Jared Harris), a colorful character with tattoos and a love of liquor. He travels to many cities and in Murmansk encounters Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton), who is intrigued by his mysteriousness. Although married, she begins a brief affair with Benjamin and introduces him to the pleasures of caviar, night-time dialogue, and sex. Benjamin also tastes the rush of adrenalin in war when he and the tugboat crew take on a Nazi U-boat that has just sunk a troop transport in World War II. Many of his shipmates are killed in the clash. Benjamin returns to New Orleans in 1945 and encounters his father, a rich entrepreneur who runs a button business. He is a lonely old man who is dying and wants to reconnect with the boy he ditched years ago. Instead of showing anger or seeking revenge, Benjamin treats him with kindly compassion for he has come to realize that death is a tender moment that must be treated with respect and dignity. Daisy (Cate Blanchett) is now a renowned dancer in New York who stops by for a visit. She has read his postcards from around the world and still feels they are soulmates. She tries to seduce him, but he is not ready for the changes that he sees in her. But after he inherits his father's estate, he travels to New York to be with her. But now she is too caught up in the drama and excitement of her career and artist friends. There is more to their relationship as new twists and turns bring them together again as Benjamin grows younger and more handsome. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is one of the best films of the year with its complex story, idiosyncratic characters, and treatment of the themes of love, time, aging, youth, change, death, and the impermanence of life. David Fincher directs this soulful movie with a marvelous attention to detail and pacing. The secret to the film's powerful impact is the terrific screenplay by Eric Roth who wrote Forrest Gump, a 1994 movie that was also a picaresque tale about a strange outsider and his wild adventures. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that has been substantially changed for the screen. Another plus is the melodic and impressive music by Alexandre Desplat. What does Benjamin learn from his odd condition that makes him grow younger instead of older? What are the lessons of his adventures that take him around the world and back home again? At one point, he says: â€Å"You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. You can make the best or the worst of it. † Benjamin always keeps an open mind and uses each encounter as an opportunity to soften his heart. He makes the best of bad situations and does not allow them to bring him down. He demonstrates an equanimity that enables him to handle failure and success, defeat and victory, with calm. One of his favorite mantras is â€Å"You never know what's coming for you. † It is best to see everything as a mystery that does not need to be solved or explained away. Just live in the present moment and savor what presents itself to you. A sense of wonder is a trademark of Benjamin's personality. As a man-child in the home for the elderly, he listens to the house breathing. As a child-man he savors the start of the day looking out over the water just like his father did. Benjamin learns how to let go and not to cling to anyone: â€Å"We're meant to lose the people we love. How else will we know how much they meant to us? † From start to finish, this character tries to be himself, accepting his flaws and celebrating his strengths as a human being: â€Å"It's never too late or too early to be whoever you want to be. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button reminds us that the best thing we can do is make the most of our journey and be thankful for the people we meet along the way. It's all gift. Benjamin embodies the zest for life described in one of our favorite quotations by Diane Ackerman: â€Å"The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one's curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sunstruck hills every day. . . It began as mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between. â€Å"

Pakistan Media

Media enhance the knowledge of public and communicates all the happenings to the public. Media industry of Pakistan is growing fast with much potential and seemingly bright future ahead. Media should not use negative tools to increase their viewership. Role of media in Pakistan is getting quite irresponsible; as there are so many talk shows and political debates on the screen all the time and sometimes they seems to be crossing their limits. Media should work in its limits and according to some rules and regulations. Besides spreading exaggeration, Pakistani media should resolve the matters with positive attitude.Media is supposed to be responsible for the present society, trends, norms, values and so on. People are what they see, around them. Media reflects the society and it is the responsibility of media to expose the country to the whole world. Role of media in Pakistan cannot be neglected; Pakistani media relates dramas, movies, sports, news and entertainment and so many feature s to the people. Its dramas reflect society and happenings and issues in the society not only to the people of Pakistan but also to the whole world, news channels alarm the people about all the current happenings, within and outside the country.MASS MEDIA IN PAKISTAN 1. We are living in the age of information explosion, where the world has shrunk into a global village. 2. The vital function of Mass Media is that it is the thinking mode of any society. Following are the types of Mass Media: – (a)Print Media (b)Electronic Media (c)Interactive Media 3. Tools of Media. Since the media plays a war of words, the important tools Include ‘vocabulary’, being ‘vigilant about different developments’. (a)Reading. (b)Vigilant (c)Punctual (d)Alertness (e)Lingual Competence FACTORS FOR GROWTH OF MEDIA 1.Mass media is wholesaler of M. Communication. Pak inherited 05 radio channel son its birth. International Trend played important role in development of Mass Media i n Pakistan. Initial decades of Pakistani Media’s history have been dominated by PTV. 2. Government was compelled to permit freedom of media (a)Liberalization of airway in India led to mushroom growth of TV channels (b)In Kargil war India was able to sell its viewpoint to the world and cashed on its version while Pak suffered since it had only the state channel. (c)Economic boom in telecom in Pakistan.Commercial nature of Media was discovered in the economic advantages related to it. Revenue generated by Media in 2002 was 2 billion and in 2007 this soared to Rs. 17 Billion. (d)Literacy rate / level grew in Pakistan and played a role in media Development. (e)Arrival of cable operators / network and its growth held vision. (f)Govt policies played vital role, especially of President Musharraf. Javed Jabbar. Said â€Å"Media is more powerful then nuclear devices† he worked on PEMRA 3. Private sector was involved and posed challenge to state media.State Media to compete with Pvt Media has to improve and become more open and provide realistic stories, this reformed the State Media as well _ since realistic input was being provided by the Pvt Media. 4. Pak Media Market was in raw form and was untapped; it had the potential to grow. Phenomenon of community based radio channels i. e. FM channel, community based Services (print / elect) have played important role in media development. 5. Number of Press Media / Printing groups were permitted and have launched their TV channels e. . Jang Group – Geo, etc. 6. Mass media is the major source of providing news and entertainment to the people who wants to know who is doing what and what is happening. Aristotle in his book â€Å"Poetics† has written that â€Å"Media is a means of catharsis and is must for normal living†. 7. The entertainment and news value of media has played very important role its development. However, electronic media enjoys larger scope over print media, since it has wider audience, is easily accessible and be understood by even illiterate people.The media provides wide range of entertainment / news according to interest of people of different age groups / liking / languages. Talk Shows Mania has brought more liberalization and has revolutionized the concept since erstwhile taboo issues are being discussed enhancing the awareness of people. 8. The realization in the people and Government about the role of media in society / economic development is there. Indian soap operas have a large viewer ship and their popularity has attracted lots of commercials / advertisement. The commercial aspects attached to the media have contributed to its rapid development. . The Infrastructure Development has taken place. Modern state of art studios /introduction of latest equipment / communication facilities like video conferencing, fax, electronic data transfer, chat / mobiles, etc have brought in a revolution and contributed immensely in the media development. 10. T he advertisement / commercials have brought big money to media market. The contents of programmes are changing. The high economic stakes attached to the media have brought in Professionalism in all its related fields. Due open market, there is a Scarcity of professional media men 11.The abundance of media outlets has on one hand has created lot of employment opportunities but on the other has posed challenges to the media men to excel in their fields. Jang Group has more than 50,000 employees; media persons are getting enhanced wages. Today we have number of highly professional and well-known media persons who are stalwarts of Pakistani Media and form its backbone. 12. Dozens Of other factors have played role in the development of Pakistani Media. It has been a â€Å"watchdog† on actions of the state, people strengthened the media. Media has played important role in discussing un-touched subjects.It has helped harmonizing the nation on otherwise contentious issues. The compet ition among the channels is bringing in qualitative improvement in the content and other aspects of programmes MASS MEDIA IN PAKISTAN EFFECTS OF MEDIA 1. Level of Awareness. The level of awareness has increased. Media has contributed a lot in increasing the general knowledge, who is who and what is what, knowledge of current issues etc. The programmers having media discussions, current affairs, documentaries, etc have been instrumental in enhancing the common man’s awareness.

Research paper The Apology of Socrates Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Apology of Socrates - Research Paper Example It is often said that Socrates acted unwisely in this defense and prior to the charges being brought against him because he purposely incited the wrath of many of the more powerful people of Athens. However, the defense he presents to the court suggests Socrates understood something more than normal men. His argument in the end is not that he didn’t break the law of Athens, but that he was acting in a necessary capacity for the development of the free and democratic society he understood Athens to be. The first charge brought against Socrates was that he was spreading sacrilegious ideas because he challenges other people’s beliefs. Socrates acknowledges these charges when he speaks against old enemies that have spoken falsely â€Å"telling of one Socrates, a wise man, who speculated about the heaven above, and searched into the earth beneath, and made the worse appear the better cause† (Apology: 944). His defense regarding sacrilege is based on the statement of the Oracle which once pronounced him the wisest man alive. Such a pronouncement caused him to take up a series of inquiries looking ‘into the heavens and earth’ to discover why that might be so. He points out this was a journey of discovery to learn why what they said was true. â€Å"At last I went to the artisans, for I was conscious that I knew nothing at all, as I may say, and I was sure that they knew many fine things; and here I was not mistaken, for they did know many things of which I was ignorant, and in this they certainly were wiser than I was. But I observed that even the good artisans fell into the same error as the poets; because they were good workmen they thought that they also knew all sorts of high matters, and this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom† (Apology: 947). Villa says this reveals that Socrates â€Å"obviously cared greatly for his city and fellow citizens† (2001: 39). His method was intended to open their minds to greater thought within a

SAB 310 UNIT 1 DICUSS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

SAB 310 UNIT 1 DICUSS - Essay Example On the other hand, in October 1987 one of the most vocal religious speakers Jerry Falwell praised an athlete Kevin Edwards; a praise that led the congregation cheer (Rader, 2008). Today, Americans participate in the Super Sunday termed as the country’s biggest religious holiday. Such a revolution has brought about pros and cons of hosting sporting events on Sunday. Most games played on the Lord’s Day reflect devotion to sports and faith through deeply spiritual themes. Through hosting sporting events on Sunday like the Super Bowl, the non-observant persons cram in for spectacle. Event elements such as event fighter jet flyovers, national anthem, and awards integrate a liturgy that brings participants together. The event ends into a festal offering. Sunday sporting events offer convergence for sports, and politics, reuniting all aspects of social life. As a result, more revenue is raised from Sunday hosted sports. The Super Bowl has continued to get bigger and bigger each year banqueted with elaborate and well-articulated food traditions as well as broadcast reaching most people. Religious aspect of football is substituting the deteriorating religious practices and social engagements. It is noted that for two decades, the number of people attending religious services on Sunday has been declining while those attending Sunday sports increase. A steep and steady decline in civic engagement continues to increase. American sports history indicate a fervent revolution turning sports into a religion. The spirit driving the importance of sports in the contemporary American culture depicts sports as a religion. Marin Marty’s definition of an atheist as one who does not care about the outcome of a football match. This implies that Sunday sports will continue to be beneficial in the sport

Climate Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Climate Change - Essay Example By the records, prior to the advent of the industrial revolution, the levels of carbon dioxide were way lower than they are today (NASA, 2013). By the end of 2010, the levels of carbon dioxide stood at 389 parts per million as compared to 280 parts per million before the industrial revolution (Doyle, 2013). Records dating to as early as 1500 designate that there has been a steady increase in temperatures as Metz notes (Metz, 2010). Research carried out by UK and U.S based environmental research and scientific institutions show that since the late 1900’s, global average temperature has increased by 0.8 degrees (Hayward, 2014). This rate of increase might appear trifling but according to scientists, it is one of the strongest indicators of the rapid climatic changes happening on earth (Balonnof, 2013). In addition, scientists advise that if climatic change is not urgently addressed, by 2050, the rates of temperature increase should be expected to be between 2.6 and 4.5 degrees ( VOA, 2014). Another imperative statistic from scientists is the verity that there is an over 40% increase in the rates of carbon dioxide and alarmingly, half of this has occurred after the 1970’s (Braasch, 2013). 98% of scientists collectively agree that 98% of the climatic change (with much emphasis on global warming) is caused by human activities (Gleb, 2013). To what extent is the climatic change man-made? Some people have argued that climatic change should not be ascribed to human activities.

Genocidal rape in Bosnia-Herzgovina Research Paper

Genocidal rape in Bosnia-Herzgovina - Research Paper Example Systematic mass rape and forced impregnation of women to cause pregnancy was related to the policy of â€Å"ethnic cleansing† of the Serbian genocide. Methods used in the campaigns of ethnic cleansing included but were not limited to torture, murder, detention, arbitrary arrest, sexual assaults in general and rape in particular, extra-judicial executions, forcible removal, confinement of the civilians into the ghettos, civilian deportation and displacement, exposure of the civilians to deliberate military attacks, and property destruction. Widespread ethnic cleansing was accompanied with the outbreak of war from 1992 to 1995 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnian Serbs forced Bosnian Muslims in large numbers along with some Bosnian Croats to flee their homes. There was also a small population of Bosnian Croats that conducted similar campaign against the Serbs and the Muslims, though they were far outnumbered by the violent Serbs. In the start of 1991, Balkans saw political upheava ls displacing a total of nearly 2,700,000 people, 700,000 of which sought refuge in Europe. There was an obvious military intent behind the systematic policies of rape in conflict with the International Humanitarian Law adopted by the Serbs. Giuseppe Zaccaria, an Italian journalist, summarized the Serb army officers’ minutes of meeting conducted in late 1991 in a Belgrade suburb in which he noted that the explicit policy of the Serbs was meant to target the children and women, they being the most vulnerable part of the social and religious structure of the Muslims. The reason why Bosnian Serbs targeted women and children can be summarized in these words: â€Å"Our analysis of the behavior of the Muslim communities demonstrates that the morale, will, and bellicose nature of their groups can be undermined only if we aim our action at the point where the religious and social structure is most fragile. We refer to the women, especially adolescents, and to the children. Decisive intervention on these social figures would spread confusion among the communities, thus causing first of all fear and then panic, leading to a probable [Muslim] retreat from the territories involved in war activity† (Zaccaria cited in Alien 57). In spite of the media reports discussing the mass killings, the secret camps, the destruction of architecture of Bosnia and mosques, most of the global community showed indifference to them. In response to such media reports, the UN implemented economic sanctions upon Serbia. The first UN peacekeeping force during the Yugoslav wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina was the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR). Mandate of the UNPROFOR for Bosnia and Herzegovina was to keep the people alive as the war reached its end. In an attempt to supervise the food and medicine distribution among the Muslims, the UN deployed its troops. However, these troops were not allowed by the UN to make any sort of military interference against the Serbs. UN had its own reasons not to stop the Serbs from killing Bosnian Muslims; the UN security forces thought that this was not their war and so they should not risk their lives trying to stop the Serbs from committing the atrocities. In addition to that, some soldiers of the UN security forces were held hostage by the Serbs. The safety and security of those captured UN soldiers was the prime concern of the UN securit

Destination Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Destination Analysis - Essay Example There are shopping areas like; MBK (Mahboonkrong) on Phayathai Road; Siam Paragon on Rama I. Road; Central World on Ratchadamri Road; the Platinum Mall on Petchaburi Road; and the Esplanade on Ratchadapisek Road. There are several other malls that cater to the busy streets of Bangkok, day-in and day-out, from early hours till late night. What makes the shopping experience such a hit with the foreigners specially is because of the economic condition of Thailand, as one United States dollar is equivalent to almost thirty Thailand Baht. This city is a key part of the Asian economic core, and most of the countrys banks and multi-national corporations are based here. Also the Stock Exchange of Thailand is located in this city. Tourism is also a major source of income. Bangkok is a world-famous travel destination. Millions of tourists travel to this city annually. Tourists are attracted mostly by the culture, large number of temples and a favorable exchange rate with the Thailand Baht. Bangkok has many elevated highways and newly built intersections to cater to the traffic jams, as private vehicle usage continues to surpass the development of infrastructure there. To avoid the traffic jams, one can opt for the â€Å"express way†, which connects most road networks in Bangkok to one another. This highway can also take the people to a few of the outskirts of Bangkok, like the Suvamabhumi International Airport. The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) provides regular bus service to Bangkok as well as five surrounding provinces of Northaburi, Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani, Nakhon Pathom, and Samut Sakhon (Ieda, 2010), continuously on some routes. The buses are in large number and very cheap too, with the minimum fare, of non-air-conditioned buses, reaching to around 7 Thailand Baht, to many metropolitan destinations within Bangkok. There are many taxis that roam around Bangkok. They are metered, with a fixed starting rate, and also charge waiting time

Marketing Communications in Hospitality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Marketing Communications in Hospitality - Essay Example Service marketing and the tangible product marketing are not the same. Service marketing required some more specifications as far as the marketing is concern. The traditional four Ps of marketing are very much important for the product marketing. However, according to Crane (1993), the additional three Ps are also very much important for the service oriented business. And they are people, physical evidence and the process. People: The people are the primary part of the service delivery process and these are the main people who can influence the customer’s mind towards the product. The perception towards the products relies on these people. The person who performs the service delivery he is the most important personnel in the service industry towards the customer’s mind. The people who demonstrate the product, he or she must know all the aspects of the products so he or she can explain all the details of the service. For any hospitality businesses which are mostly service oriented are much tougher to sell as the customers do not get the actual feelings of the product while they are buying the product. However, they feel the product while they are availing the service and that is basically after they buy the product. For this particular reason, the physical evidence of the product is very much important. The actual feeling of the products must be created by the sales person at the point of sales towards the customer so the customers would be feeling confident to buy the products. Process: This particular functional activity is actually the procedure or mechanism and flow of work towards the service. The proper process can be a great positive point

Taping over uneven ground Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Taping over uneven ground - Lab Report Example It is actually a common measuring tool whose design allows measuring a great length and can easily be carried on pockets or toolkit a part from the fact that it permits one to measure around the curves or corners. This equipment is majorly used for measuring short straight distances Usually with a pointed tip on the bottom, that is suspended from a string and used as a vertical reference line, or  plumb-line. It is essentially the vertical equivalent of a "level†. This equipment was used to accurately locate vertical orientation. As can be seen from the picture, finishing nail is a slender nail having a narrow head being able to be driven easily into the wood surface. It then leaves a small hole that can be filled with putty and smaller compound. It is normally used in marking the various short distances that have been measured in order to ensure there is straightness of the tape. 7) A member of our team stood from a distance to observe if the tape was sagging to make sure the measurement was accurate. A plumb bob was held over point A. we then measured the distance between points AE prime and E and then added the two measurements taken. Different segments had different measurement values. Trial 1 to 3 the values are almost close but not exact. The values of the horizontal distances with no breaks also varied with those when using breaking tape. Some errors were encountered when carrying out the experiment; the errors could have been due to improper reading of the tape or using the equipment. The variation of the end graduations between the horizontal distances was due to the effect of temperature and the weight of the tape. The error could have been reduced by applying greater tension to the tape, personal errors could have been reduced by avoiding parallax when reading the

The Business Proposal on ArabTV.com Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Business Proposal on ArabTV.com - Essay Example A significant number of people today use the internet to help them meet several needs such as shopping, employment chances, meeting their social needs, as well as for entertainment purposes such as watching movies or watching their favorite TV shows (Lescher 2008, p. 56). Consequently, creating a website that enables people to watch their favorite Arabic movies and TV shows is quite a great business idea because it is aimed at making the lives of people easier as they will be able to satisfy their entertainment needs through online. The uniqueness of this service is that it will enable clients to watch only the high quality Arabic television shows and movies right on their computer. And the most important and good thing concerning this service is that consumers have the chance of getting the quality programming and Arabic movies that will be appropriate for every person either within a family set up or as a group of friends. Furthermore, another unique or the difference of this servi ces is that, unlike the normal TV tuning, these Arabic channels will provide viewers the specific shows that they want to have and convert them right on their desktop. This website will ensure that it meets the various needs of the people ranging from entertainment channels, educational Arabic TV channels, Arabic music, programs on Arabic TV programs on home improvement, as well as relevant business programs for business people. The website also aims at providing several channels that show Arabic movies. This implies that a person may have a complete day of movie marathon particularly if he or she is a movie enthusiast who is presently on a day off and just desire to relax watching movies especially Arabic movies without renting DVDs. Generally, creating a website for Arabic movies and TV shows will provide consumers with all the television shows and movies that they want and even set up for their preference. As long as they choose this website, they will get the best providers for better value in terms of service and features (Strangelove 2010, p. 45). This will ensure consumers high quality Arabic movies and TV shows experience for a long period of time. With this service in place, a considerable number of problems will be solved. For instance, it will promote the lives of those people without televisions in their homes to enjoy Arabic television shows online. It will also simplify and help people save time in the process of searching for a place to rent DVDs containing Arabic movies, as well as save on the money spend on renting those movies. This is because as long as a person is able to access the internet, he or she will be in a better position to watch any Arabic television show of his choice, as well as enjoy his favorite Arabic movies at any time and at a favorable cost. It will also be advantageous particularly to those individuals who have membership cards with the website as they will be able to watch quality Arabic movies and TV shows all time onc e they pay their membership fee, which are quite affordable. In order for this proposal on creating a website to be accomplished successfully, there is need of employing different technologies such as standardized mark up that could either be hand coded or produced by editing software. Proprietary software founded on

The Speckled Band Essay Example for Free

The Speckled Band Essay Physically, he is described as having a huge stature and a face marked with every kind of evil passion. He is a typical villain and a bully, who, as in all classic murder mysteries, comes to the nasty end, which he undoubtedly deserves. There are many other ways in which The Speckled Band is a perfect illustration of this genre. The character of Sherlock Holmes is very clever and logical, an imaginative genius. Like a classic detective, he is observant and thorough and has incredible powers of deduction. When the murdered womans sister, Helen Stoner, arrives to meet Holmes, he concludes simply from looking at a few splatters of mud on her left sleeve that she has come by dog cart, as well as train. Miss Stoner is taken aback by this observation yet cant help being impressed by the mans calm self-confidence. Throughout the story we never see Holmes suffer from fright, suggesting he is adventurous and courageous in his investigations. This is very typical as it adds suspense for the reader who never knows what frightful situations the great detective may find himself in. He is cultured and lives the life of a gentleman and bachelor; this is expressed in his elegant and precise speech. As far as we know, Sherlock Holmes shares no emotional ties and lives alone, satisfied with a life of wealth and solving crimes. We see from the way in which he doesnt ask Miss Stoner for a fee, other than expenses, that money is not the reason he has chosen this lifestyle. He shows great passion and commitment to his work, another classic trait of the murder mystery detective. As to reward, my profession is its own reward. He is also physically strong, as illustrated when he bends the poker stick back to its original position and remarks, I am not so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him that my grip was not much more feeble than his own. This kind of strength may not be so evident in modern-day detectives. Holmes is courteous and well mannered, even when being rude to his enemies. His speech is always very articulate, as in the scene where Dr Roylott visits his flat to give an aggressive warning, and Sherlock Holmes simply replies, Your conversation is most entertaining When you go out close the door, for there is a decided draught. Conan Doyles detective has become a prototype for classic murder mystery stories, someone whom readers can respect and admire. As already mentioned, much of the atmosphere of a murder mystery derives from how the writer sets the scene and describes the physical nature of the setting. The Speckled Band is certainly a good example of this. On the night of Julias murder the wind was howling outside and the rain was beating and splashing against the windows. This intensifies the mood already created by Miss Stoners early description of the old manor house with only one inhabited wing. This early impression of the Stoners ancestral house at Stoke Maron is reinforced when Holmes and Watson arrive at the mansion. The suspense builds up as it is gradually conveyed. Our first impression, from a distance, is of a heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the branches there jutted out the gray gables and high roof-tree of a very old mansion. It is only on approaching the building of gray litchen-blotched stone and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, that we become aware of its sinister nature. This helps to create tension. The picture of ruin described by Conan-Doyle supports the notion of Julias murder. The menacing images suggest there are more horrors to come. As the two enter the scene of the crime/bedroom that night, Holmes whispers gently into Watsons ear that the least sound would be fatal to their plans and they must sit awake in the darkened bedroom, or their lives may depend on it. We are then taken through the long hours in the absolute darkness, listening to every sound that echoes in the night, until the pitch black is suddenly sliced by a momentary gleam of light. At the same time there is a smell of burning and the silence is broken by a gentle hissing sound. Like the famous detective and his companion, all our senses are alert as we brace ourselves for some ghastly revelation. We are further held on tenterhooks by Holmess face, deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing, as he lashes out at some invisible foe. This is followed by a blood-curdling cry that carried all the way to the village, raised sleepers from their beds and struck cold in their hearts. Like all classic murder mysteries, the story has reached a thrilling climax, to be followed by the detectives explanation of events, here learned from the account that Holmes gives to Watson. The detective runs through the case, pointing to where he at first went wrong before demonstrating his remarkable powers of deduction. For example, he initially came to an entirely erroneous conclusion, showing how dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data. This is followed by a detailed description of what actually happened. As classic detective, Holmes leaves the reader impressed by his skills and surprised by the truth that is eventually revealed. LUCIA REED Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Conan Doyle section.

Development of Air Compressor Lubrication

Development of Air Compressor Lubrication In this project, the mission which needs to be accomplished is to investigate the relentless root cause of such failure and to give useful recommendations which can help to avoid such failures in the reciprocating compressor under study in the future. An engine driven auxiliary air compressor failed, the air compressor is located in the Hawke workshop. The first stage will be to establish details about the compressor, the manufacturer and how the compressor works. Classification of compressors and types will be also discussed and of course the theory of operation. Collecting components failed in order to be examined subsequently for the failure cause or causes this will be held using a variety of methods. NDE (non-distractive examination) or NDT (non-destructive testing) is valuable way to use for preliminary inspection of the failed parts without damaging it. DT (destructive test) is another way to check and inspect parts but this inspection method appears from its name it lead do d estructive damage the tested parts which will be no longer able to be used. Fatigue principles also will be showed. Studying all the above will gave a clear idea about the cause of the damage. Discussion of the probable causes for the failure well be performed in the following chapters as well as the conclusion obtained from study conducted. 1.1 Introduction Air compressor producing is return for long time ago. The main idea of compressing air and discharge it used by the ancient in deferent ways. The first usage for the air compressor is increasing the combustion of furnace. The air compressor is raising the heat of the furnace by bellowed compressed air to it. Moreover, the main products got from these furnaces are metals and weapons. Muscles were the main power source for the air compressor. The below figure shows the old air compressor. That kind of old air compressors still used in different productions. This project will investigate and analysis a failure happened in an air compressor. This investigation will be done in several ways to figure out the cause of the failure. Air compressor is a machine has the ability to compress the air and release it to convert the electrical power to kinetic energy to use it in several industrials and usages. Air compressor is consisting of many components. These components are electrical motor, pistons, air pump, air receiver, air drier, filters, air pressure regulator and pressure switch. All of these components will be discussed in details in the next chapters. There are also types of air compressor will be discussed later. 1.2 Background The case which had here is a failure in an air compressor. From the first sight on the damage happened in it, it seems to be that the failure happened in the connecting rod and its obvious from the below figure number 3. This figure shows that the failure happened in the connecting rod from the ring part which connected to a crank shaft. But the reason for this failure is unknown as there are several scenarios could be adopted. The first scenario is the fatigue is the reason for this failure. The second scenario is a very heavy pressure loaded to the compressor which led to that failure. These are the most expected scenarios which will be investigated later in this project to figure out the reason of the failure. 1.3 Amis and objectives Aims: The main aim of this graduation project is to investigate and discover the cause or the causes of failure of diesel engine driven auxiliary reciprocating air compressor made by Knorr-Bremse, model number is LP 4865. This will be achieved by carrying out the below objectives, once its achieved, the main aim of the project will be achieved. Project objectives: Collecting valuable information about, model number is LP 4, this will include: design of compressor, design of each part, construction materials of each part, operation principles, working theory, production range..etc. collecting data will help to recognize main failure cause, and accordingly to prepare new procedure to eliminate the problem, to decrease the opportunity of failure occurrence in the future, use greater safety factor and to recognize the person or the entity responsible for failure and to make mistake proofing for future avoidance of the failure. Collecting this background information is not limited to numbers only but it is should be extended to everything such as pictures, charts and graphs and samples. Investigating operational parameters, history of operation, nature of operation..etc in order to be able to determine precisely the root cause of such failure and which failure mode it follows. Physical investigation or macroscopic inspection should be carried out. This mission includes photo capturing, code of the product, model number, lot number, batch number and serial number. Perform compressor disassembly in order to dismantle each component, part, assemblies and sub-assemblies to perform through investigation and inspection of each. Its should be mentioned that necessary tests and analyses should be performed; mainly the manufacturer usually has his own procedures and tests for test and inspection. 2.0 Air Compressor What is the air compressor? Air compressor is a machine that converts electric power to kinetic energy (motion). This energy comes from pressurizing and compressing air. After that, the compressed air goes into a chamber, and the air kept in the chamber by unidirectional valve. There are many types of compressors these types are: reciprocating compressor, rotary screw compressor and centrifugal compressor. These types will be explained in details below. 2.1 Reciprocating compressor: Reciprocating air compressor is positive displacement compressor. This compressor sucks a volume of air and presses it with high pressure. This pressure done by using a piston and cylinder as movement part and displacement part. The compressor could be single acting or double acting according to its accomplish by using one side or both side. When the pressure difference between the cylinder and the receiver became proper, the valves open. Inlet valves open when the pressure in the cylinder is slightly below the intake pressure. Discharge valves open when the pressure in the cylinder is slightly above the discharge pressure. The compressor could be a single stage when the compression process done parallel. Advantages: Simple design. Lower initial cost. Easy to install. High efficiency with 2 stages. No need for lubrication. Large range of horsepower. Disadvantages: Maintenance cost is high. Many moving parts. Vibration problems. Foundation maybe required. Not running at full capacity all the time. 2.2 Rotary screw compressor: Also Rotary air compressor is a positive displacement compressor. Single stage helical or spiral lobe oil flooded screw is the most common in rotary air compressor. This compressor is consisting of 2 rotors located in a case where the air is compressed internally without any valves. The cooling for these compressors done by oil. As the cooling for the working parts happened inside the compressor, this type of compressor will not experience over heat due to operation, so it could operate without stop. Due to the simple design of the rotary screw compressor and its parts it can be maintained easily and installed any where could handle its static weight. The 2 stages rotary air compressor uses 2 rotors with a combined air end. This 2 rotors installed in series to share the compression. This raise up the efficiency with 50%. This 2 stage rotary compressor combined the maximum profit from the rotary screw with its simplicity and flexibility and the reciprocating compressor with its effect ive energy when it works 2 stages with double acting. The 2 stages of this compressor could be cooled by water, air or oil. The cooling system for this compressor could be oil, air and water. Advantages: Simple design. Low initial cost. Low maintenance cost. Good efficiency at 2 stages. Easy to install. Few moving parts. Common in use. Disadvantages: Limited life for airend. Service for airend couldnt be done at field. High rotational speeds. Must be oil lubricated. Single stage has low efficiency. 2.3 Centrifugal compressor: The centrifugal air compressor is a dynamic compressor that depends on transfer of energy from a rotating impeller to the air. This done by changing the airs momentum and pressure. By slowing the air in stationary diffuser the momentum converted to pressure. This compressor is oil free compressor. There is a separation between the lubricated oil and air by shaft seals and atmospheric vents. Where the high volume of dry air is required a centrifugal compressor is the proper compressor as it has a few moving parts and could operate continuously. 2.4 Rotary Sliding Vane Compressors: Rotary sliding Vane Compressor is also a positive displacement compressor. This type of compressor is consisting of rotor and stator and eight blades. Between the intake and exhouset valves a cresent shape formed by the location of the rotor and stator. The compression achieved by one complete rotation as the volume changed from the maximum to minimum. Vanes are pushed outward against the stator walls. Injecting oil from the intake valve and along the stator wall to cool the air and make a sealing between the stator wall and vans and also to lubricate bearings. So that a filtration system must be installed to separates the oil from the compressed air. Advantages: Simple design. Easy to install. Low cost. Maintenance cost is low. Reliable. Few moving parts. Disadvantages: Single stage. Low efficiency. Must lubricate with oil. Difficult with over pressure. 2.5 Main Component of Air compressor in general: The system could be installed in 2 methods. The first method is where air drier before receiver tank. The second method is where the air drier after the receiver tank. These components will explained in details in the below paragraph. Receiver tank: From its name receiver tank is a tank that receives the discharged air. It helps to prevent rapid compressor cycling by providing a storage capacity. The advantage for the receiver tank is reducing the wear and tear in motor, inlet control system and compression module. It also eliminate the flow pulsing. Air Dryers: there are 3 types of air dryer. The main objective for air dryers is to dry the air to prevent rust and wearing in the air compressor components and discharge line. These types are: Refrigerated air dryers: This dryer used a mechanical technique to remove moisture from compressed air and cooling it and condense water. Desiccant dryers: This dryer is absorbing water vapour by using utilizes chemical drops called desiccant. The common desiccants used in this dryer are silica gel, molecular sieve and activated alumina. Deliquescent air dryers: This type of dryer using desiccant to dry compressed air. The wetness in the compressed air reacted with the absorption material and turned into liquid which drained from the dryer. This process could be corrosive so the corrosion check has to be done. Filters: Filters are installed to remove the lubricants and water from the compressed air. It could be installed downstream at refrigerated air dryer or upstream at desiccant dryer. The most common in filters is coalescing filter. But this filter it only can remove liquid and water which have been previously condensed. Piping Distribution systems: Piping distribution system is controlling in how the compressed air go out to the tools and also determined the required energy for the air compressor. 2.6 The reciprocating air compressor (knorr-bremse, model lp 4865) The main study object in this project as said before is to study the reciprocating air compressor (knorr-bremse lp 4865). By searching the internet and try to get information about the air compressor which needed to complete this study but unfortunately the required information couldnt be found except its maximum pressure 12 bar and volume 460 . So the general information about the reciprocating air compressor will be mentioned instead of the specific air compressor. There are 9 main parts for the reciprocating air compressor these parts are: Crank case: Crank case is a close rigid body where the crank shaft and the bearing house where located. This body could by rectangular or square shape. Mainly crank case formed by using cast iron. Crank Shaft: Crank shaft in one of the most important parts in air compressor. It is a motion transferor. It designed as one piece has balance in its dynamics and tries to avoid any twisting. To ensure a long life for bearings, the polishing and crank pin will be done. Generally crank shafts have a fly wheel. This crank shaft manufactured mainly of high grade S.G iron. Connecting rod: This part is responsible of transfer the motion from the crank shaft to the piston and changing the direction from the rotating motion come from the crank shaft into reciprocating motion in piston. This part is mainly forged of alloy steel. Bearings: Bearings are made to provide the rotating gear with rigidity. Its mainly manufactured of copper lead alloy. Cross slide: to get a perfect running for cross head, this part is responsible for reduce the inertia. This part is commonly manufactured of high grade S.G. iron. Cylinder: This part is where the air flow passes and compressed. Cylinders are manufactured with water jacket to reduce the generated heat from the compression process. This cylinder mainly made of cast iron. Pistons: Piston is the main part in the compression process, which move forward to compress the air and backward to intake a new air amount to compress. There are 2 types of piston according to its lubrication system, the first type is non-lubricated which made from aluminium alloy, and the second type which is lubricated is made from cast iron. Due to moving of piston in the cylinder, so there must a space exist between them, to ensure there is no leak happened for air a piston rings located on piston. Piston rod: Piston rod is this rod which connects the piston to the connecting rod. The piston rod is manufactured of alloy steel. Intake and discharge valves: These valves are responsible for the amount of air sucked or discharged. When the piston in the retraction position the suction valve open to allow the air to get in. when the piston move forward and reach the maximum pressure the discharge valve open. These 2 valves are adjusted to be opened and closed according to the pressure difference between inside the cylinder and the outside. These valves are made from stainless steel even a plate type or spring type. 2.7 Air Compressor Lubrication Due to the operation of the air compressors which have different moving parts, a friction must be occurring. This friction generates heat and not just that it leads to part wearing which probably lead to a failure. And some time a kind of sealing need to be installed to prevent the compressed air from leaking. All of these reasons lead to using lubrication. Oil lubrication is a must in air compressors to overcome all above problems. The lubrication method could be different from type to another, but the main idea is to prevent the friction between moving parts like lubricate the bearings, or at the same time in some cases like reciprocating air compressor it also works like sealing between the cylinder wall and the piston. The problem in lubricate the air compressor is the selection of the proper oil. The selected oil must be industrial oil with high quality and matching the operation requirements. The environment of where the compressor will be installed is one of the parameter of s electing the lubrication oil, if the environment is too cold and the temperature is low the frizzing point, an anti-frizz oil must be use. If the environment is too hot oil with high viscosity and ability to heat resistance must be used. All of these restrictions must be considered while selecting the lubricant. These are the main idea of lubrications but the implementation is different according to each type of air compressor. The lubrication system changes from one type of air compressor to another according to the operation theory of it. 3.0 Quality assurance for the manufacturing process Air compressors are designed to work in both the industrial and the privet fields, it designed to press gas or pressured air. During the air compressor operations leak or failure maybe happened and this will lead to a serious damage. The quality assurance purpose is to guarantee if the production is safe and ready to use or if rejected and have defects. This operation done by two methods the first one is the destructive test which means that the tested object will be destructed and no longer could be used and this type used in the initial design and on the first production to be sure of it. The second test is called the non-destructive test (NDT) which means we can make our test and be sure if the production is good to use or not without destructing the production. This type (NDT) what we are going to focus on because its the most common method in inspection. The definition of the NDT is its a test methods used to examine an object without impairing its future usefulness. There are a several methods in NDT used like: Visual Microwave Thermograph Tap testing X-ray Magnetic particles Acoustic Microscopy Acoustic emission Magnetic measurements Liquid penetrate Ultrasonic Flux Leakage Eddy current Replication Laser interferometer All of the above methods are used in NDT, but in our case we will go to use the common methods and try to clarify its operation and how to use. Visual inspection: It the most common and basic inspection method. In this method we can use fiberscope, bore scopes, magnifying glasses and mirrors. Another technology could be used as electronic microscopes have the ability to enter the narrow places inside the air compressor. Magnetic Particle Inspection: This inspection could be done by magnetize the inspection part. After that coloured particles of iron covered the inspection area. These particles of iron will spread to the magnetic flux and show the discontinuity area. By applying the proper light this inspection could be checked by visual.splinedflour Radiography: To perform this check a shot waves with high energy is used. Radioactive source or X-ray machine could generate such waves. The part which will be tested will be located between the radiation source and a film. This part will prevent some of the radiation. Thick areas will stop more waves. This will lead to variation on the film darkness the thick part will be less dark and the thin or cracked part will be more darker.RAD1Casting CastingRad Eddy Current Testing: This type of test is used to discover the crakes on the surfaces. It also could be used to test the thickness of coating of the surfaces.eddy.PNG Ultrasonic Inspection: To use this test a high frequency sound wave is applied to the surface of the part. These waves are reflected waves which will be reflected from any crack inside the material. This sound wave are reflected into the device which will show the reflection time on a gage this gage could show the depth of the crack by time of reflection. It could also be connecting to a computer by using a computer program which will draw a diagram of the part and the crack location. Liquid Penetrate Inspection: To apply this type of test a liquid with high moistening spread over the tested part and gave time to leak into the crakes. After that the rest of liquid is removed from the surface. After that a special powder spread over the surface to get the stuck liquid out from the crack. The crack will appear and could be discovers by eye. To increase the sensitivity and accuracy of this test it could be done under ultra violet light. For the above types of NDT there is some common application where they also could be used: Inspection of Raw Products: Forgings. Castings. Extrusions. Inspection Following Secondary Processing: Machining. Welding. Grinding. Heat treating. Plating. In-Services Damage Inspection: Cracking. Corrosion. Erosion/Wear. Heat Damage. 3.1 Fatigue The strength of the product is the most important safety factor. To be sure that the product will be safe and could stand the applied loads safety factor must be added to the design. During the operation, parts experience a non-constant loads which lead failure along with time. Fatigue could be defined as a failure happened due to a rapid variation in loads, but without any of this load variations exceed the maximum load. This type of failure happened commonly in metallic materials not only but also in different materials. There are 3 stagers for Fatigue, these stages are: 1. Initial crack. 2. Propagation of crack. 3. Final fracture. 3.2 How to analysis fatigue to prevent it Component material and stress field are the main 2 principals that govern the amount of time needed for crack to start and spread accusing a failure. There are 3 main methods to calculate the fatigue time, these method are: SN Method: To predict a fatigue life for a part stress life approach could be used. This method gave the fatigue life for the object. This method is depending on the calculation of varying elastic strength so it couldnt be applied to low fatigue cycle. But this type of test is very accurate at high fatigue cycles. EN Method: This method is using plastic stress to calculate not only the fatigue life but also the crack penetration. The advantage of this method is that it could be used for calculating the fatigue in low life cycle and plastic life cycle also. LEFM Method: Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics is used to calculate crack growth rates. This approach assumes that a crack is already present and predicts crack growth with respect to the stress intensity at the crack tip. 3.3 Fatigues in Aluminium From previous fatigue studies done on aluminium, it seems to be that aluminium is a very good material with high resistance to fatigue. These studies which done on a certain alloy of aluminium, but in general the heat treatment for aluminium lead to a significant in the fatigue life. Heat treatment also give aluminium high strength, excellent toughness and reasonable ductile. The crack initial behaviour of aluminium took place from the surface just like many metals and alloys. 3.4 Aluminium Properties To be familiar with Aluminium some properties must be considered and known, these properties are: Youngs Modulus: 70 GPa. Ductility Malleability: High. Hardness: 420 MPa. Density: Low 2700 kg / cubic metre. Melting Point: 660.32 ÂÂ °C Boiling Point: 2519 ÂÂ °C. Electrical Resistivity: Low 2.65 x 10-8 Ohm metres. Reflectivity: High 71% unpolished and when polished: 97% . All of these properties gave a clue that Aluminium is the metal of the modern world. With its strong, lightweight, ductile and reflective it could be used for several industries and accomplish a great results. 4.0 Problem Analysis The first problem in this study is that damage which happened in the connecting rod from ring which connected with crack shaft. As said in the background, there are 2 scenarios leads to this damage. The first scenario is a fatigue accrues in the connecting rod with lead to this damage as it couldnt stand the motion and the pressure any more. The second scenario is an excessive pressure more than the maximum pressure which could be hold by the compressor. At the same time a malfunction in the discharge happened, and this could be taken in consider as it must opened at slightly below the maximum pressure. In both scenarios, the damage in the connecting rod lead to another greater damage in the piston and the cylinder, as the piston start to move in non-liner motion and hitting the cylinder wall. This leads to a serious damage in the compressors piston and cylinder. The second problem is gathering the information about the air compressor Knorr-Bremse Lp 4865. This problem happened as the manufactured company keep the information about this compressor not listed and its material and properties to figure out the reason of the damage, maybe by knowing its maximum pressure or material type to check the fatigue on it. 4.1 Problem Solution After studying all sercomestances and what happened during the failure happened, it seems that the failure happened due to a serious fatigue which is not noticed in a previous time. This fatigue happened to the aluminium alloy which connecting rod made from. An analysis done for the particles and it shows that the particles is consist of 88% aluminium. This gave a thought about how serious was the fatigue in this movable part. As the connecting rod is responsible for transfer the power and motion from crank shaft to the piston, it experiences a load variation all the operation time. A crack must happened time ago on the surface of the connecting rod and it start to spread and choose the weakest area which is the ring where the crank shaft is hinged. This particular area is the weakest area in connecting rod as the thickness reduced to attach the crank shaft. To overcome the second problem a deeply internet search is made with trying to contact with the manufactured company through their website www.knorr-bremse.com, but with no result. So another technique implemented, which is gathering common information about reciprocating air compressor and its common parts and materials. This could be useful but not accoutre. There are 2 appendices attached to the project which have some data about the parts and how to maintain it gathered from the company itself. 4.2 Results As a final result of this project, the damage which happened in the connecting rod accusing damage on the rest of parts is happened due to a fatigue. After the fatigue weak the connecting rod it reached a phase that the connecting rod couldnt stand any load. Just after the failure the piston starts to hit the cylinder wall, which accuses the obvious damage on the piston and the piston rings. To prevent such a failure in the future a regular check must be done for the concerning parts as scheduled in the producers manual. A life time calculation for all parts must also be done and make the replacement in its time. These procedures are going to prevent such a failure to happen again.

Political and Country Risks in International Business

Political and Country Risks in International Business Introduction: Political and country risks: Financial institutions and business organizations operate its business activities abroad in order to diversify and expand their sources of revenue and profitability. Organizations that make investment in a foreign market either in the form of equity or assets are exposed to risks that may arise either from an act of the host government or from other external political events taking place in that country, these risks include social, political and economic conditions and events that imposes negative impact on the financial performance and profitability of foreign organizations. Types of political and country risks: The following are the main types of political and country risks that may affect the business performance of an international organization operating in foreign countries. Nationalization or deprivation: Nationalization is a process whereby a government takeover privately owned industries, corporations and resources with or without compensation. Nationalization is a political risk which makes it very difficult or impossible for international organizations to invest in a country where businesses are exposed to such risk. In past governments have nationalized highly profitable industries on the ground that it does not want foreign ownership of its valuable resources for instance in 2006 the Bolivian government nationalized the countrys oil and natural gas industries. Similarly in January 2007 the Government of Venezuela announced to nationalize firms in two major sectors of the countrys economy i.e. telecommunications and electricity. In November 2009 the president of Venezuela announced that he will nationalize banks in the country. Forced divestiture: forced divestiture another type of country risk in which an international firm is forced to divest its business operation, an example of forced divestiture is the Indonesian subsidiary of French retail giant Carrefour which has been ordered to sell the 75% stake it acquired in smaller rival Alfa Retailindo in January 2008. Gradual expropriation: Expropriation means a quick action of government to seize the assets of foreign entity, but in gradual expropriation a single international company is targeted by the host government. Gradual or creeping expropriation involves slow and gradual removal of property rights by way of tax increase on profits to make a foreign business less profitable, increase in property tax, instituting increasing barriers, changing the proportion of ownership which must be held locally. In gradual expropriation the ownership title of business remains in the name of foreign investor but the right to use the business is diminished as a result of the government interference. An example of gradual expropriation is when China announced a policy restricting the property rights of domestic and foreign automakers to transfer their ownership or enter into strategic alliance in China, by banning the sale or transfer of manufacturing licenses by bankrupt or failing automakers. Similarly in Tecinicas Medioambientales Tecmed S.A. V. The United Mexican States it was declared that the Mexican government has committed expropriation because of non-renewal of a license necessary to operate the landfill. Currency inconvertibility and exchange: Currency inconvertibility means a situation where one currency can not be converted or exchanged into foreign currency. This is another political risk for an organization operating its business activities abroad. In such case a foreign government may restrict the right of foreign firms to repatriate profits to their home country and all profits remain in the foreign country. Inconvertibility of currency may arise due to passing new legislation or administrative delays. In administrative delays the bureaucracy in a foreign country takes more time in currency conversion and creates a financial burden upon foreign companies. Some countries issues inconvertible currency for instance Cuban peso in order to protect its citizens from perceived capitalist infiltration, similarly domestic regulators may consider foreign currency inconvertible in order to protect local investors from bad investment decision i.e. hyperinflation of currency. Termination of fuel supply agreements: Termination of fuel supply agreement is another political risk for an international organization functioning in a foreign country. A foreign company whose business activities are solely dependent upon fuel supply under an agreement with the host government, or with the host company and when such agreement is terminated than in such circumstances the company will face major problem in continuing its business in such foreign country. Confiscation: Confiscation of international business is a severe form of political risks where host government seizes the assets of a foreign company without compensation. The U.S. 1996 Helms-Burton Law entitles the U.S. companies to sue companies from other countries that use property confiscated from U.S. companies following Cubas communist revolution in 1959. But the U.S. government waived this law repeatedly in order to maintain good relations with other countries. Terrorism and kidnapping: Kidnapping and other terrorist activities are means of making political statements. Small groups unhappy about the current political or social situation can resort to terrorist tactics to fulfill their demands. 9/11 tragedy is a prominent example. These groups may target the executives of large international companies for kidnapping and taking of hostages in order to fund their terrorist activities. The current political instability, terrorist activities and internal conflicts in Pakistan is a good example, where an international firm is exposed to a verity of threats arising from such activities and makes it impossible for such firm to operate business effectively and increase its profitability. Policy changes: Furthermore good relationship between the host government and international companies is of vital importance for operating a successful and profitable business and any political change that modify the anticipated effect and worth of a given economic action by changing the likelihood of achieving business objectives than it affects international businesses to a greater extent and the governments hard and fast new policies can create huge problems for international companies. Contractual frustration: Frustration of contract means legal termination of contract between the parties because of unforeseen circumstances which makes the performance of such contract practically impossible. These circumstances include, accident, change in law, sickness of one of the parties and interference from third party etc. In international business perspective companies that enter into trade agreements for export or import of goods or services either with government or private entities in foreign countries are often exposed to underlying political risks. Such contract may be frustrated at any time for a number of political reasons that are beyond the control of the parties. Transfer: Transfer risks take place when host government policies imposes limitation on the transfer of capital, payments, production, people and technology in and out of country i.e. imposing tariffs or restrictions on import and export, repatriation of capital or remittance of dividend etc. Trade disruptions: Devaluation: Screening for political risks: In order to operate successful business activities overseas it is very important for international companies to identify, analyze, measure and manage those political and country risks that are encountered by such company. Analysis of political risks: In order to analyze political risks, these are categorizes in two levels according to their nature, severity and intensity i.e. Macro political risk analysis and micro political risk analysis. Macro political risk analysis: This is an analysis that observes major political decisions likely to affect all businesses in a country. Macro risk factors include freezing the movement of assets out of the host country, limiting the remittance of profits or capital, currency devaluation, refusing to perform contractual obligations previously signed with the MNCs, industrial piracy (counterfeiters), political disorder and government corruption. Micro political risk analysis: This is an analysis that is directed towards government policies and decisions that influence selected sectors of the economy or specific foreign businesses in the country. The examples are selective discrimination, industry regulation, imposition of taxes on specific types of activity, restrictive local laws and host government policies that promote exports and discourage import. Management of political risks: Political risks can be managed through applying different strategies i.e. avoidance, reduction or shifting of risk and post commitment practices. Avoidance: If any enterprise realizes that making investment in a country will expose such enterprise to political risks the most simple strategy to keep away from such political risks is not to invest in such country and to go somewhere else, this is pre-commitment strategy that can be used before the commencement and making any final commitment. Reduction or shifting of risk: Another way of managing political risk is that a foreign company can implement a financial structure that shifts risks to local creditors and shareholders. Similarly contracts can be designed whereby a force majeure clause is included to revise and free contractual parties from their contractual obligations in case of any violence, coup, insurrection and long-term trade disruption etc. Post-commitment practices: Post-commitment practices mean adoption of strategies after making investment and commencement of business activities in overseas market. This kind of strategy takes various forms i.e. modification of employment or the ownership of the business, minority interest, designing operational structure, diversification and taking insurance policy. Modification of employment or the ownership of the business: If a foreign firms top management is controlled by local nationals or their ownership is significant or establishing of a joint venture of 50-50 ownership with a local firm than the host government would have less incentive to nationalize such business. Minority interest: Another useful strategy of managing political risks is to adopt minority interest in the business. Designing operational structure: Designing the operational structure of business in a way that attracts the inflow of foreign exchange in the host country and establishing good relations and close cooperation of management with the host government will also safeguard such firm from any threat from the host government. Diversification: If any political risk is encountered by a foreign firm while operating business activities overseas the best way is to diversify and expand its business operation into other countries that are not exposed to such type of risks. Taking insurance policy: Moreover to avoid any kind of loss that can be inflicted due to any political or country risk the company can go for insurance policy but it is very expensive and can minimize the profitability of such firm. conclusion: Catherine Rampell, When Government Takes Over Industries in Trouble, The New York Times, January 21, 2009: Available http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/business/worldbusiness/22poundbox.html Caracas, Chavez to nationalize ‘strategic sectors, The Washington Times, Tuesday, January 9, 2007: Available http://washingtontimes.com/news/2007/jan/09/20070109-122511-8759r Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatens to nationalize banks, The Times of India, International Business, 30 November 2009: Available http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/biz/international-business/Venezuelan-President-Hugo-Chavez-threatens-to-nationalize-banks/articleshow/5282995.cms Business Monitor International, Carrefour forced to divest Alfa Retailindo Stake, Indonesia- Mass Srocery Retail, Nov 5 2009: Available http://store.businessmonitor.com/article/302304 John OConnell., Creeping Expropriation, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management. 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The United Mexican States, International Centre for Settlement of Investment of Disputes (May 29, 2003) Case No. ARB (AF)/00/2: Available http://icsid.worldbank.org/ICSID/FrontServlet?requestType=CasesRHactionVal=showDocdocId=DC602_EncaseId=C186 John OConnell., Currency Inconvertibility, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management. Blackwell Publishing,. Blackwell Reference Online. 22 December 2009: Available http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9780631233176_chunk_g97806312349376_ss1-191#citation Inconvertibility, Financial Dictionary: Available http://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Inconvertibility Wild. J. J. et al (2008) International business the challenges of globalization, 4th edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey p 97 Wild. J. J. et al (2008) International business the challenges of globalization, 4th edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey p96. Frustration of contract, Business Dictionary: Available http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/frustration-of-contract.html olitical Risks Briefing for Contract Frustration, Marsh an MMC company, July 2001, p 1: Available http://www.global.marsh.com/documents/contractFrustration.pdf