Environment Research Paper

Environment is the complex of social or cultural conditions which affect an individual or community. We, human beings, constitute a part of this environment and need to find ways to preserve it for future generations. Modern industrial development of domestic chemicals created new environmental problems. Rachel Carson in her Silent Spring (especially chapter 15 Nature Fights Back) wrote about chemical pollution and threats it creates for humans. Her warning raised the public and enlarged the movement of environmentalism. In my essay I want to discuss another important environmental concern humans face today globally – water pollution.

Water pollution is any physical or chemical change in quality of water that affects living organisms or makes water not good for using (drinking). There are two pollution sources: (a) point source: discharge pollution from specific locations, and (b) non-point source: pollution is diffuse and has no specific location.

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Pathogenic organisms are the most serious water pollutants. The main source of these pollutants is untreated human waste. Of course, in developed countries plants reduced most of the sources of pathogenic organisms in surface waters, but in less developed countries the situation is quite different. People in these countries lack basic sanitation and have no access to clean water to drink.

As Rachel Carson wrote that when humans interfere in nature control process, the balance of nature is changed. This is true not only with insects but with water also. Water clarity is affected by chemicals as well as the abundance of plankton. Human activities increase the eutrophication. Using chemical poisons kills only the first wave of insects, but new ones come with more resistance to poison due to undergoing the process of natural selection. It becomes harder to kill them this time. The situation with water is more complex because once polluted it becomes unsuitable for usage. It is hard to make it clean again.

United States and Canada have shown a good example in protecting and restoring water. Just to mention Clean Water Act (1972) which established National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). It requires each industry to gain a permit to dump wastes into surface waters. This led to the improvement of water quality: in 1999 the EPA reported that 91% of river miles and 87% of lake acres are suitable for use.

Nevertheless, many problems still remain. In United States about three forth of water pollution comes from soil erosion and surface runoffs from urban areas. Pollution with nitrates has decreased due to higher control of point pollution. However, it increased four times from non-point pollution recently.

Other countries (such as Japan and Australia) have also improved quality of water. Treatment of industrial waste in Europe equals to that in US. Western Europe has made huge investments in cleaning water globally. But, in the less developed countries (Africa, South America and Asia) the quality of water is worth then in the poorest countries of Europe. Treatment of waste is absent; in urban areas almost all waste is directly discharged into rivers. Development of heavy industry, growing urbanization and lack of investments into cleaning and preserving water are reasons of poor water quality.

The cheapest and the most effective ways to reduce pollution are to avoid releasing of the waste into water. The industry process needs to be modified so that fewer wastes are produces. Recycling materials also reduces waste streams into water. Still, the greatest challenge in water pollution today is to gain control over non-point pollution sources. A good example is seen in Chesapeake Bay, America's largest estuary. The key objective of this plan was to reduce nutrient loading and pollution prevention measures. Even though progress is obvious, the goals of reducing nitrogen are still years away.

Human wastes create the most serious health related water pollution. In poor countries most rural people just go into field to relieve themselves. If population is low than nature can eliminate this waste quickly, but if it is large – we have pollution not only of water but also soil. Sanitary engineers have developed effective wastewater treatment systems to protect quality of water. In many American cities sanitary sewers are connected with storm sewers which carry urban runoff from streets.

For further progress in preserving nature and especially water, people need to be environmentally educated. Such person will understand nature, environmental issues and interrelationships. Understanding how we influence environment is another result of such education. Educated person tries to find the ways to participate personally in protection and preservation of nature: he becomes involved in activities to improve and maintain natural resources.

Insects are held check by natural predators; the water cannot be cleaned by itself if once polluted. In theory of course in can, but it will take long time. The intrusion of humans into nature needs to be on very low level. Rachel Carson proposed to leave the problem wit insects to nature, but cleaning of water cannot be left unnoticed. People polluted it and it is our goal to clean and preserve it now. People are part of natural balance as well as insects and plants. Polluted water affects every part, including humans.

Each individual can make a change: many voices together can make a difference. It is important to be active at local level and communicate to officials your ideas: how to preserve and improve quality of water. To achieve better results we need to keep population stable, decrease reliance on non-renewable resources and, of course, ethical and spiritual reconnection with nature and humans. Many people are willing to pay for cleaner environment: more investment should be attracted to nature preservation and cleaning water.

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Research Paper on Drugs and Alcohol

There exist many drugs in the world, which go under different names, have different effects on the human organism and are derived from different sources (natural or artificial). In the following research paper I will speak about alcohol, PCP and LSD drugs that are present in the US society even today.

Alcohol is one of the most famous drugs that are used by people around the world legally. There are many types of alcohols, yet typically one speaks about ethanol or spirit produced from fermentation of fruits and vegetables with yeasts (Cozic, 74).

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Effects of alcohol:

Alcohol is a depressant, which slows down the central nervous system in humans and thus slows the thinking process. When consumed in great quantities alcohol can depress the human nervous system to the point of heart stoppage/stoppage of the diaphragm, which assures that a person can breath. Alcohol also negatively impacts certain brain areas which can result in mumbled speech in people and the loss of proper coordination. Since alcohol is a depressant it slows down the person’s reaction and ability to operate a vehicle and thus makes people under the influence of alcohol dangerous drivers for the society.

PCP or the so-called phencyclidine is an anesthetic and dissociative drug that was created in 1960 by the Parke&Davis company.  PCP is a synthetic version of ketamine yet has effects similar to DXM. Unlike ketamine, PCP has a long-term effect on humans that can sometimes extend over weeks. The use of PCP was discontinued after patients started to experience hallucinations after consumption of PCP (Cozic, 83).

PCP is still used for recreational purposes in the USA despite the fact that its popularity is lower than that of cocaine, marijuana or LSD. The drug is sold only in a few cities in the USA and is sold as a liquid material to be further sprayed on leafy materials as represented by marijuana, mint or parsley and subsequently smoked.

In a pure form PCP is a white powder (that’s why is called “Angel’s dust”) and is easily dissolvable in water.  PCP, that is sold on the market is colored from tanned to brown and can range from powder to a gummy mass.

Effects of PCP:

The effects of PCP differ depending on the amount of drug consumed.  For instance moderate amounts of PCP usually causes a sense of detachment, estrangement, and easiness of mind in users regarding the surrounding environment. Numbness, slurred speech and loss of coordination usually is accompanied by the feelings of might, powerfulness and invulnerability (Gahlinger, 128).  The Users of PCP possess a blank stare, rapid and involuntary eye movement let alone exaggerated gait.

If the amount of PCP consumed is above moderate one can experience auditory hallucinations, let alone image distortions. Some people experience rapid mood swings and amnesia. Sometimes, one can sense a feeling of acute anxiety, i.e. feeling of impending doom, paranoia and violent hostility and oftentimes a psychosis similar to that present in schizophrenics.  Because of such unpredictable effects on human health, PCP is believed to be one of the most dangerous drugs to be abused.

  

LSD or D-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, is one of the most powerful semisynthetic hallucinogen and psychedelic drug. LSD is famous for its small dose necessary to cause long-lasting hallucinations in humans. For instance, one needs the amount of 1/10 of the weight of a grain of sand (100micrograms) to cause powerful hallucinations in humans for a period of time from 8 to 12 hours.

Effects of LSD:

LSD is a powerful hallucinogen drug, which produces powerful visual effects in the mind of a drug-taker. One can see a trail behind moving objects, observe brilliant colors and see images of unusual shapes. One needs to remember that LSD does not create hallucinations as one might think, yet rather creates illusions and vivid daydream-like fantasies. LSD consumption can possess long-lasting psychological shifts, such as changes of views and mindset. In limited instances, LSD was used to treat alcoholics and achieved high results (Gahlinger, 133).

Now it is necessary to take a look at the article available at http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/53/11/1375, titled Alcohol & Drug Abuse: Alcohol, the “Un-Drug” written by David Farabee et al.  The article noted that according to the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program about 79% of males and 85% of females committed a crime under the influence of some illicit substance.  The majority of these criminals were under the influence of alcohol. Later one learns that although some people may be using more than one drug, typically have alcohol as the dominant drug of abuse.  Alcohol is the first substance to be used in California by individuals who were just released from prison. It appears then that alcohol contributes to the amount of violence that people express in public and cause the harm of others. The article still noted that alcohol did not directly increase violence or any other type of criminal behavior, yet it is the reason for people to try new and more powerful drugs and also try to act differently from how they typically act and thus potentially engage in violence.

  

Another article that I believe is useful for reading and understanding is located at http://www.athealth.com/Practitioner/ceduc/alc_assault.html , is titled “Alcohol and Sexual assault” and is written by Antonia Abbey et al.  The article attempts to uncover the role of alcohol in sexual assault. The article depicts horrific statistics of how many American women were sexually assaulted and raped and how many men engaged in the rape or attempted rape.  The article noted that 50% of all violate crimes involved consumption of alcohol by either the aggressor, the victim or both.  The article then makes an uncompromising statement that women who drink alcohol are not responsible for the rape rather it is men who drink alcohol are responsible for the scene of rape and sexual abuse.

The article noted that drinking is a shared activity, meaning that if one person is drinking the other person usually is drinking too. Thus, one cannot draw any reasonable statistic that alcohol is responsible for the rape, yet rather it is the moral responsibility of a perpetrator that should be taken into consideration.

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Business Policy Research Paper

Research Paper on Business Policy

I believe that education falls in the growing stage. Education is not new and one could see universities in ancient Rome and Greece just like during Dark Ages and in all periods up till present. The product of the education industry is knowledge. Although it had been considered in the past that “everything that could have been invented was already invented” and that “innovations are nothing but the things from the past we do not remember”, we realize that the quality of knowledge is constantly growing and by no means had reached its apogee. Another fact that needs to be taken into consideration is the fact that although in major developed countries the literacy levels are very high, the majority of global population is still illiterate. These two facts that the product of education, knowledge, is still growing in quality and that the majority of global population is still illiterate, I believe that knowledge belongs to growth industry/high velocity markets. One will learn about how education fits into high velocity markets later in the essay. Now one needs to learn why education does not fit other stages.

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i. Emerging industries: Education is not new, skimming would not work in the well-developed countries like USA, Europe, Japan because these countries already have high quality educational facilities that accumulated top thinkers of the world. Furthermore, one cannot patent knowledge, i.e. oblige other universities not to study something that you come up with.

ii. Maturing industries: Education each year attracts more and more people and growing prices at universities prove the growth in demand for educational services. Universities do not engage in M&A activity yet rather work independently on vertical integration.

iii. Stagnant industries: If education belonged to stagnant industry that would mean that everything that humanity needed to know was already invented and written down. Students would routinely go to schools memorize that knowledge and be happy. Such presupposition is a absurd, and because education constantly changes it means that it does not fit the stagnant industry cycle.

iv. Fragmented industries. Education appears not to fit this life cycle because one does not see much focus in universities. Even though one knows that MIT specializes in technology, Harvard in business and Yale in law, these universities constantly strive to differentiate and create more different subjects of high quality rather than focus on their existing core competencies. No university attempts to find and hold only one niche and stay there. On the contrary, universities typically strive to differentiate and get as much of the market share for different educational specialties as possible.

v. International markets. This appears to be second closest fit for the education in the global village we live in. there is a tremendous educational discrepancy between the first world and the third world countries educationwise. Speaking about education in the third world countries one could say that it belongs to emerging cycle, since many countries still do not have quality education yet manage to charge superprice on it. As technology progresses, education becomes available to other countries via phone, internet, online, video conferences, TVs, VCRs etc. The educational facilities of the first world countries are currently able to conquer the educational markets of the third world countries. One observes some unification of education as the US and European institutions constantly engage in international exchanges.

vi. High velocity markets/growth stage. This is where I believe the modern education fits in.  Universities constantly differentiate. They provide educational services on virtually every subject one can think of. They provide education at virtually any time to any part of the country in any possible mode (commuting, living on campus, online courses, correspondence courses, TVs, etc) to accommodate the growing demand from different types of consumers. Quality erosion is protected by re-education and constant improvement seminars/courses for the teaching staff. Universities attempt to integrate vertically and now virtually all of them possess an independent food service, educational facilities, housing, shops, sports teams, university police, parking lots, research labs, cars, vans, marketing specialists, etc. One observes the shift from product awareness to brand awareness, as no one any longer speaks about education and knowledge as such but rather speaks of schools that nourish and provide that knowledge to students.

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This is a free research paper on Business Policy topic. Keep in mind that all free research project samples and research paper examples are taken from open sources – they are plagiarized and cannot be used as your own research project. If you need a qualitative custom research project on Business Policy for college, university, Master's or PhD degree – you are welcome to contact professional research writing company to have your paper written online by academic research writers.
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Research Paper on The Internet

Research Paper on The Internet and its Effects on Society

Internet is a global computer network, which connects millions of computers through the whole world. Internet technology sweepingly developed from the second half of the previous century. Internet tied around all the important elements and spheres of our life. It is difficult to imagine that our everyday activities, which used to be very easy, can become even easier. So Internet gave rise to many positive and some negative consequences. But ultimately, most of Americans need Internet in their everyday life.

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I consider that one of the most widespread usage of the Internet bears educational nature. People access online public libraries in order to find some literature. People search for belles-lettres, popular scientific literature, halfpenny horribles, classic literature, scientific literature, detective stories, culinary books, textbooks for colleges and universities and so on. Many people search materials for making different research papers, online newspapers and magazines (here Internet forces out some print editions). People attend forums, where they can ask a question or answer the questions of other participants, utilize online encyclopedias etc. Some people search information for education, others search information for commercial use. Norman N. Hie and Lutz Erbring from the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society1 have made a research, which counts 4000 respondents, and state that all surveyed Internet users were engaged into educational requests from the Internet at least once.

Many Internet users utilize Internet for entertainment – about one third part of respondents, engaged into the Stanford’s University research. Of course teenagers use Internet as entertainment source first of all – they play numerous online games, watch TV programs, and listen to different online radio stations. Women like to read horoscopes and magazines, watch fashion reviews. Lonely people can find the ‘second half’ for themselves – there are plenty companies that help people to find each other not only within America, but through over the world. Percentage of marriages between couples that have met in the Internet increases from the year to year.

The next widespread usage of Internet is communication. It includes IP telephony, Web cameras, chat rooms, ICQ and e-mail. Especially popular is e-mail – it became one of the most popular kind of communication, “90% of all Internet users claiming to be e-mailers”2. Internet communications became popular elsewhere - business communications, private contacts, sending resumes, recommendation letters and many others.

In business sphere Internet became irreplaceable tool because it gives an opportunity to run business from one office within the whole world. I think that multinational companies appreciate Internet as a business tool more than others. People can buy goods and services from any point of the globe. Business people can perform the following activities in the Internet: e-banking, online payments, stock trading, foreign exchange activities etc. Many Americans prefer online shopping to usual one because it saves their time and energy, and of course it is much easier to find some scarce foods in the internet than just make the round of numerous shops.

Among the most significant negative sides of the Internet there are the following: - pornography (especially children); - swindle (many people paid their money and received nothing); - dependence of the society not only from computers but from the Internet – hackers’ attacks often cause damage to many companies and paralyze their activities; - psychological dependence from the internet – many people (especially teenagers) spend most of their time in the Internet  and spend less time with their friends and family etc.

Finally I want to summarize my points and draw a comprehensive conclusion: most Americans need internet in their everyday activities – it became irreplaceable tool in business, education, communication and entertainment. Internet gave rise to negative events as pornography and swindle; dependence of our society from the Internet and personal psychological dependence from the Internet, but nevertheless positive sides override all negative ones and thus Internet technologies sweepingly develop and spread. In future people will need Internet more and more, and nobody can predict the consequences of such interaction and dependence of humans and technics.

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Small Business Research Paper

How Small Businesses Compete Research Paper

The present decade is marked with a well-defined globalization trend that fosters the development of large multinational and global corporations that build strong brands and win customer loyalty. At the first glance, the small business sector is left behind due to the superpower of large companies and has no chances to withstand the fierce competition in the market. On the other hand, large size implies many disadvantages that consequently make up a small business’ competitive advantage. In other words, small businesses have more flexibility to adjust to the changing environment and customer tastes than large companies that own large capacities and other assets and resources, which are difficult to control and change within short timeframes. Concerning the nature of small business itself, it is vital to not only to control resource base, but also to keep to the right strategy such as differentiation or low cost, develop wise strategic investment objectives, pricing policies, and competitive signaling (Allan, T., Globalization and its Features ). Moreover, the emerging opportunities presented by e-businesses enhance the competitive capabilities of small firms and open the ways to explore new market trends and changing consumer preferences.

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Major factor that proves that small businesses can retain competitive advantage even in the tough economic conditions can be found in the Porter’s generic strategies. The focused differentiation strategy says that sometimes it is better to focus one’s attention on a small group of customers. 

Michael Porter defined differentiation as “providing something unique that is valuable to the buyer beyond simply offering a low price” (Shue, V. and Stanley, T). He provided that differentiation can be tangible and intangible, and both types create customer value. Tangible differentiation includes such characteristics of goods as performance, size, colors, materials, packaging, and other features of augmented product, including warranties, post sales service, etc. (Shue, V. and Stanley, T). 

Intangible differentiation is often difficult to observe because of certain subjectivity; different people have different perceptions of product and company identity or image. This kind of differentiation, thus, is often built on the company’s image or product’s status (e.g. exclusive, luxurious). These inputs trigger customer responsiveness, which does not depend on solely products, but also customer-supplier relationships as whole (Terry, Michael. Small Business and its Advantages). This enables small business owners to select a distinct group of customers on the basis of their needs, wants, and preferences, and pursue their satisfaction with reinforced effort. The customers within a selected segment should have a strong reason/desire to purchase company’s products, be easy to reach, big enough to result in the necessary sales volume, and simultaneously, small enough for a company’s competitors to overlook the segment. Competitive advantage, thus, lies in the right choice of target audience and the right strategy to reach the company’s prospects. 

While differentiation is concerned with how to compete in a given market, segmentation defines where to compete. Market segmentation gives the possibility to find the right market niche (Galbrait, John Kenneth). Usually, the best possible way to conduct segmentation process is compiling a database of existing clients and dividing them into separate independent groups according to their special interests, needs, wants, and preferences. To achieve high organizational performance standards, the customer segments should be well-defined and specifically described so that managers could develop specific objectives. The research conducted among 600 small retail businesses showed that those businesses characterized by well-developed marketing and overall performance objectives achieved higher performance results than those companies whose objectives were defined unclearly and lacked specifics. Another study that was conducted a year later among 600 apparel retail stores revealed the fact that small companies, where owners and executive management demonstrated high entrepreneurial orientation (ability to take risks, introduce innovations, and take advantage of newly emerging opportunities), showed better operational results, and thus, larger financial inflows (Shue, V. and Stanley, T). 

However, taking a more fundamental approach to research the sources of competitive advantage of small business, it is worth to consider the resource-based view. Theoretically, it is defined as continuously developing existing resources and capabilities and, at the same time, creating the new ones to adequately respond to the fast moving market environment (Allan, T.,Globalization and its Features). Capabilities, in their turn, are classified into distinctive capabilities and the reproducible ones. While reproducible capabilities (financial and technical, explicit knowledge) can be relatively easily bought or copied, distinctive organizational capabilities represent unique features of a company and include effective teamwork, advanced leadership, expertise, or specific patents and licenses. It is imperative that the combination of these two types of organizational capabilities should produce the effect of synergy. In other words, RBV provides that the company’s strategy should be build in regards to its resource pool so that to best utilize its capabilities and core competencies to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the external environment. The sustainable competitive advantage is achieved by assembling the appropriate combination of resources, exploiting them in the most effective way, developing and creating new resources to adequately respond to changes in turbulent marketing environment (Diversification with time-varying risk).

Porter developed 5 major sources of competitive advantage. The first one is represented by unique competitive position. Although, given the conditions of intensive competition, the unique competitive position is hard to achieve and even much more difficult to retain, a company should define several capabilities that makes it different from other market participants (Emalson, Steffany. Global Marketing Environment). The second source of competitive advantage lies in distinct tradeoffs and wise choices in relation to competition. Third, Porter emphasizes the importance of a company’s activities: each step should be made according to the company’s overall business strategy. The fourth factor suggests that all activities should be viewed as a system, not separate parts. Finally, the fifth source of competitive advantage is maintaining high operational effectiveness, which means minimization of costs and profit margin increase. These basic factors have become universal and can be applicable to any business. 

In 1997, McGee and Finney conducted a research with the purpose to empirically describe the sources of competitive advantage in the small retail business in rural areas. As a result, 5 critical factors were outlined: 1) quality image, 2) effective differentiation, 3) effectiveness of key merchandising practices, 4) civic involvement, and 5) control of retail program (Galbrait, John Kenneth). Like, in each industry, consumers are seeking high quality and value when making buying decisions. Differentiation gives additional value to the product and makes a product more competitive. The fifth factor indicates that control is also essential in achieving organizational success.

Many experts also agree that it is impossible to underestimate the human factor. Numerous studies indicate that customer-based focus remains a key competitive advantage of small businesses. Many customers admit that while shopping in large retail stores like Wal-Mart, Metro C&C, etc., saves money, small retail stores have larger propensity to provide high quality service. Business press contains negative responses about large retail companies justifying their opinion by the saying that “backlash against huge, impersonal discount stores in which low prices usually come at the expense of good service” (Terry, Michael. Small Business and its Advantages). Many small retail businesses like bookstores or woman apparel retail outlets provide additional value through enhanced strategy of personalization which customers are looking for and willing to pay for, even if the prices are higher than those at the malls. Some people are willing to pay up to 50% premium for quality service that involves human interaction. 

A good example can be found in banking business. Recently large banks realized the benefits of outsourcing to rural banks as a new way of cost-cutting scheme and better customer service. Highly automated systems and call centers cannot serve as a substitute to personalized service that is a priority for small banks. Walking in to the local branch and enjoying friendly attitude of bank workers create an additional value for rural areas. The customers, thus, receive the possibility to take advantage of lower costs of better quality and range of financial services. For instance, Byron Bay bank has already grasped this opportunity along with many other financial services providers who plan to expand their operation activities all across the rural territory of Australia (Gregson B. Stanley). Managers agree that rural outsourcing provides a better flexibility of resource allocation that means encompassing the right target markets and cost reduction. Professionals advise niche/boutique banking as a useful tool for concentration on the bankers’ core competencies and better serve their chosen segment, which gives such competitive advantage as better customer service and skill improvement in the central areas of operation. Full service wide scale strategy, on the other hand, provides a broad cover of customer segments and allows the banks to construct full-cycle solutions. Thus, financial providers of a wide range of services gain greater customer base (Gregson B. Stanley). 

As it was mentioned earlier, it is also essential to maintain a high level of control due to the relatively high cost of programs implementation. Professionals also stress the importance of evaluation of pricing and costs policies supporting their opinion by the data obtained from recent studies. First of all, this concerns the market analysis: strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strength and weaknesses concern the company’s inner capabilities that are to be utilized for dealing with threats and grasping opportunities (Terry, Michael. Small Business and its Advantages). Threats and opportunities represent an outside environment, including economic and political situation, suppliers, mediators, technological advances, and finally competition, which small businesses have to constantly monitor.

One of the most promising opportunities is Internet and e-business. The World Wide Web offers multiple options of interaction with customers, suppliers, and third parties. This kind of communications has the potential to significantly decrease the operational costs, including the savings on international calls, business trips, overhead, and human resources, which offers an effective resolution for limited capital base problem. Moreover, this offers possibility to enhance marketing practices as advertising costs can be substantially reduced without negative implications in terms of efficiency. Besides advertising, the World Wide Web enables the companies to simultaneously perform market targeting by choosing the place to put the advertisement. Much money can be saved by conducting an analysis that would help identify the web sites that the target audience usually visits. With the help of the results obtained managers can shoot right in the target. Moreover, the latest researches show that the best decision in the context of customer-oriented approach utilized by small businesses would be the application of the pull strategy. This implies that customers are tired of spam messages (while some may call this an aggressive advertising, the majority of experts have agreed that such strategy is doomed to failure) and reject any intervention in their web space (Terry, Michael. Small Business and its Advantages).

Also, the web site should contain free valuable information for customers such as researches, pieces of advice, and knowledge sharing. This will contribute to building the company’s goodwill and create trustworthy relationships with customers (Terry, Michael. Small Business and its Advantages). Instead, the prospects are likely to search the web in case they need something. Therefore, the competitive advantage is to maintain an up-to-date and perfectly structured web site, where the prospective customers could find a set of comprehensive information about the company and its services, including all the competitive advantages and benefits it can offer. Along with the web site maintenance, the companies can simultaneously push its products and services with the help of subscription letters that will contain not only information on sports, weather, or business, but also this kind of advertising (Terry, Michael. Small Business and its Advantages). In this way, a company can gather valuable information and build positive base for developing customer loyalty. Also, one should not underestimate the civic involvement and public relations. With limited resources, companies can achieve significant sales increase because of a well-planned public relations campaign aimed at improving the firm’s image in the customer’s eyes. This is a tool for communicating business’ benefits and the value it can create for its customers by means of media, public activities, etc. (De Santis, Giorgio and Gerard, Bruno).

Thus, it can be concluded, that in small businesses compete using a wide range of competitive advantages. The benefits were explored in retail and banking field of business. First of all, for each company, it is essential to develop and integrate a strategy that would make it different from its competitors. Differentiation serves as powerful tool for creating additional value to the customer and enables the firm to charge premium prices for this value. Speaking in terms of small businesses activity, the customer-focused strategy was defined as being the major competitive advantage. While large corporations actively utilize economies of scale, decreasing their costs, and, subsequently, prices, small businesses establish a point of different in the field of premium services. 

However, the resource-based view suggests that sustainable competitive advantage can be achieved by creating a synergy – assembling a company’s resources and capabilities, both distinctive and reproducible in the most effective mode. Also, another source of competitive advantage is strong control and evaluation system that would enable the company to follow its strategy and measure its performance by means of inner and market analysis. Strengths and weaknesses should be carefully analyzed to create the right environment fit: reduces the negative impacts of threats and take advantage of opportunities. For many small businesses innovation has become an essential competitive advantage. Therefore, Internet and e-business was actively utilized by many companies. Many experts consider the web to be am efficient tool for implementing a company’s strategy and fulfilling its objectives at the lower cost. By means of on-line activities, companies can not only gather valuable information about their customers and prospects, but also increase customer loyalty and sales volume.

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This is a free research paper on Small Business topic. Keep in mind that all free research project samples and research paper examples are taken from open sources – they are plagiarized and cannot be used as your own research project. If you need a qualitative custom research project on Small Business for college, university, Master's or PhD degree – you are welcome to contact professional research writing company to have your paper written online by academic research writers.
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Roman Empire Research Paper

It is hardly imaginable that such a political entity as Roman Empire, having been the dominating super-power in the ancient world in political, economic, and, of course, in cultural sense, could come to such a sad end when it had fallen from the hand of barbarians. Although, it is often said that the Roman Empire has collapsed because of the invasion of the barbarian tribes, the invasion itself is only the top of the iceberg. The real reasons for the empire’s collapse are hidden in the political and social problems Roman Empire experienced at the time, plus that these problems were enhanced by several circumstances. There are basically two ways of explaining the collapse of Rome. The first one, the so-called institutional approach, which tries to find the reasons in the long-term processes and looks closely at internal structures, such as social structure, government, etc. goes back to the times of Diocletian and Constantine I and examines the origin of the Roman Empire weakness at the time point when it was attacked by barbarians. The second group of scholars has adopted a political approach and looks at short term causes of the empire’s collapse.

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The long-term approach is the more traditional one and is more focused on the army problems. Generally, it suggests that the seeds of collapse were sowed at the time of Diocletian (284-305) and Constantine I (305-337)1. These emperors split the army into border and mobile components. Border troop soldiers, soldier-peasants that were hired in the case of necessity, were not very efficient and difficult to organize. Another mistake that has lead to decreasing army’s fighting efficiency is that Diocletian and Constantine allowed many barbarians into the Roman army. Thus, the weakness of the border troops meant that emperors needed more mobile troops, so they decided to expand the army, which produced a need for more recruits. Simultaneously, the landowners have lost scarce workers, and the costs for holding such an army increased. To cut the costs, barbarians were taken into the army.

External conditions have also played a role in the crises of the empire. Many of the small barbarian tribes who had opposed the early empire united into more powerful confederations such as Goths, Franks and Alamanni. When, as a result of internal power conflicts, the Goths were driven into the Empire by Huns defeating the army of Valens at Adrianople in 378, Romans could not destroy these Goths any more, so the Goths were brought to to settle on the Balkans in 382. Once a group of barbarians had entered the Empire, the Romans could not employ the full military strength to keep other tribes out. So, the barbarian tribes crossed the Rhine in 406 and occupied all the western Empire.

The scientists arguing the short-term theory suggest that the key factors in the Empire’s collapse are the internal political conditions. These commentators do not argue that the army was ineffective, but add several suggestions more. They point out that the Romans made no changes to the structure of their army for a long time, so that the military organization was not up-to-date.

The second important point is the internal conflicts and civil wars during the fourth and fifth centuries. Very often, when the Roman army was forced to fight itself caused a constant drain of resources, both financial and personnel, resources that might have been turned against external enemies. The civil wars included Constantine against Licinius (316, 324), Magnentius agianst Constantius II (351-353) and Theodosius against Magnus Maximus (383-388) and Eugenius (392-394). In the fifth century there also were conflicts among the generals, for example, Aetius against Bonifatius2. Although civil war was a political problem, it had severe military effects, often provoking barbarian raids and weakening Rome’s ability to respond to them. This has lead to the trend by which the Emperors did not have enough support from its commanders-in-chief. Many scientists think that if there was a single reason for the defeat of Rome, it was not military failure, but the poor leadership.

Third, there were many economic problems present in the Roman Empire at the time of its collapse. The paying for enough troops in the huge Roman army to fight was was quite a burden for the tax payer and produced hostility towards the state. The number of small farmers has dropped significantly creating a real economic recession.

Beyond the civil wars, there were even more political problems at the time. For example, the balance in the constitution was more theoretical than actual: "...each part (senate, magistrates, citizens) has the power to hamper the others or to cooperate with them, their union is adequate to all emergencies”(Polybius)3. There was a lot of corruption in the country, while everyone was seeking his or her own profit, and not the consolidation of the Empire. Most of the power-wars among the elites were for the places in senate. The aristocrats, composed of patrician and wealthy plebeian families, aimed at and admission to the Senate became almost the inborn privilege of these families. The Senate, which in original function maintained no law making, and little administrative power, became a powerful governing force.4 Another problem is often labeled as Expansion and Imperialism, which has produced several negative consequences. First, the Roman citizenship was given only to Italians, while as provincials remained subjects. Of course, this fact produced a lot of tension between the two groups. Second, the Roman constitution, which could be effective for governing the city-state, was very inefficient to rule the whole empire with. The legislation was kept from positive change because of corruption.

The last, and probably, one of the more serious problems was the erosion of the Roman society. Many scientists name the slavery system as the main cause of social and economic weakness. Although the slave labor was assumed to be “cheap”, its cost was enormous because of the social tension it produced. The tasks performed by slaves, who were not motivated at all and hated their masters, were performed with minimum efforts and concern for quality. Slavery made social structure full of conflicts, which influenced political and economic areas. So, when the barbarians came, the Roman Empire had no chance.

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How to Write a Successful Research Paper

If you study at high-school, college or university and you were assigned to write a research paper you will need some recommendations first. In this article we offer you to learn some writing tips for successful research paper. A research paper can take a lot of time if writing it without a special plan. Our writing instructions will help you to write a successful research paper and save hours for other assignments or activities.

Step 1: What is a research paper?

Before starting to do something - learn about it as much as possible. A research paper - is academic writing that requires from student to perform a huge work out of the material and making conclusions on the base of research. There are some steps of creating a research paper that one should know before getting started.

Step 2: Find a topic

Were you assigned a topic? If not, then you have a chance to pick something that would help you in writing. There are some rules that will help you in choosing a topic. 1. The topic name should be catchy and attract reader’s attention. 2. It would be better if you chose something that you are good in. Brainstorm a field of your discipline that you know better then others. 3. Narrow down your topic. 4. Make sure there is enough of information on your topic.

Step 3: Start your research

If you ask yourself how to prepare a successful research paper, then you should know one thing - a good research - is eighty percents of your success. In order to do a good research - make a list of sources first. We recommend you to chose exceptionally reliable and accurate sources. Fell free to ask your professor about book he would recommend you. Then make a list with at least ten good sources and find it in the library or Internet. Remember to make some notes when reading the books - it will help you a lot when you start to write. Note the most important details.

Step 4: Purpose and thesis statement

When you will learn enough of your topic you are able to make some conclusions. Decide on the purpose of your research paper and compose a string thesis statement. Thesis statement should present the main idea of your writing and explain the significance of this paper.

Step 5: Outline and draft

Outline - is one of the most important and useful steps of creating a research paper. Here you define the future structure of your paper and it’s organization. Well-organized papers are always appreciated by professors. Do not start putting the words on paper just after you have created an outline. It is always a good idea to start with a draft. Double-check the draft and ask someone to read it for you, make sure everything sounds good. If you need a custom research paper - feel free to contact www.effectivepapers.com now!

Charles V Research Paper

"One of the most significant political figures of the sixteenth century, Charles V was emperor of the Holy Roman Empire" as well as a great portion of Europe (255 Bruccoli). He was born into the Hapsburg family as the son of Philip I the Handsome, the Duke of Burgundy and ruler of the Netherlands, and Charles' mother was Joan the Mad. When Charles was six his father died and he inherited the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the Franche-Comte. By the age of sixteen Charles was also the king of Castile, the Indies, Aragon, Navagon, Navarre, Sicily, Sardinia, and Naples, after the death of his grandfather and his mother was deemed mentally unsound to rule.

Charles V continued to gain more land when his parental grandfather died in 1519 and he inherited the House of Australia and was later elected Holy Roman Emperor. Charles' career was mostly basted around his struggles with Francis I and his religious controversies with Martin Luther. Throughout the 1500s and 1600s, absolutism was the most widespread political system in use in Europe and parts of Asia.

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Charles ruled like the other monarchs of Europe, with absolute and unshared power, as he claimed that he had the Divine Right of Kings, to keep his land under control. The idea of the Divine Right of Kings evolved in Europe during the Middle Ages. A person who claimed Divine Right of Kings was not to be questioned or disobeyed. This way of ruling became known as absolutism, since the monarch ruled with absolute power. Because Charles V was ruler over so much land, by claiming that he was chosen by god to rule, he was able to bring together his people with as little conflict as possible. The first example of Charles V claiming the Divine Right of Kings was when he began his political career in Spain.

Charles did not speak any Spanish when he claimed his inheritance of Spain and the Spaniards were not happy that an Australian was ruling them. Charles V told the people that he was chosen by God to be a king and that anyone who went against him would be killed. While Charles was in Germany, a group of Castilian cities began to oppose the government. Since Charles was an absolute ruler he could not stand the idea of people going against him. After one year the uprising was ended after the leaders of the Castilian cities were executed. Charles wanted to be the most powerful leader in the world and when he found out about the New World he took advantage of it.

Charles established a new Council of the Indies, which controlled Spain's New World colonial policy. This policy promised ordinances for the government of the Indies and good treatment and preservation of the Indians. Although this was unenforceable it made Charles well respected by his Spanish subjects, which was what he wanted. His Spanish subjects even joked that "Charles spoke French with diplomats, Italian with lovers, German with grooms, but Spanish with God" (255 Bruccoli).

With the people of Spain supporting him, there would be a much smaller chance of rebellion and Charles could claim absolute power. Even before Charles was born there was a rivalry between the Haburg and Valois dynasties. Charles inherited this rivalry as he fought for land in Italy. Charles illustrated his desire for absolutism when he competed against Francis I for power. When both men attempted to be elected for emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles V went as far as attempting to bribe the seven electors so that he could gain more power. The reason Charles was able to win the election was because his grandfather had been funding a family that lived in Augsburg, which consisted of one of the electors.

Charles was gaining so much power so quickly that other rulers began to fear him. France was the only force that was really was a threat to Charles' power. Since Charles had the Divine Right of Kings no one could question Charles, and when he attempted to encircle France and limit its power, the people of France realized the only way they could stop him was to make alliances with non-Christians Turks who also did not like Charles. Charles believed that God gave him the right to rule and Francis I could not stand in his way.

Charles showed a little of his hubris when he challenged Francis I to personal combat to determine control of Burgundy and Milan. Charles was a deeply religious man and was enraged when people went against the Roman Catholic faith. When Charles was seventeen a German monk named Martin Luther posted his "Ninety- Five Theses" at a Catholic Church in Wittenberg. Charles made the mistake of while he "was preoccupied with his bitterly fought election as emperor and with the Comuneros' revolt in Spain, he dismissed Luther as an insignificant heretic" (81 Saari).

Conflicts between Protestants and supporters of Charles were started because of Charles ignoring Luther. This was ended on September 25, 1555 with the Peace of Augsburg, which divided his lands into Catholic and Protestant. Charles still believed that he had the Divine Right of Kings and that this agreement was unacceptable and considered it a personal failure. Charles quit participating in politics immediately after the Peace of Augsburg. He moved on to monitoring political developments and perusing his religious devotions until his death. Charles believed his entire life that world peace could only be maintained through a strong emperor, and that he was chosen to do it.

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This is a free research paper on Charles V topic. Keep in mind that all free research project samples and research paper examples are taken from open sources – they are plagiarized and cannot be used as your own research project. If you need a qualitative custom research project on Charles V for college, university, Master's or PhD degree – you are welcome to contact professional research writing company to have your paper written online by academic research writers.
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Donatello Research Paper

Research Paper on Donatello

Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi, or Donatello, what his family and friends often called him, was an Italian Renaissance Sculptor whose influence was greatly felt in Florence, but reached as far as Venice. He is considered to be one of the finest sculptors of all time and the originator or modern sculpture. Donatello, born in 1386, was the son of a Florentine wool worker. His father was interested in politics and known for his temper after he killed a political opponent in 1382. Donatello inherited his temper. The beginning of his career and training is not definite, but it is speculated that he was trained as a metal worker. He traveled to Rome when he was young and studied ancient sculpture. When he came back, he worked as an apprentice for Lorenzo Ghiberti.

 

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When Donatello was 17, he helped Ghiberti to construct and sculpt the famous bronze doors of the baptistery in San Giovanni, Florence. After working for Ghiberti, Donatello was commissioned to create sculptures of his own. He became well known for his style and realistic portrayals. Some of his most important works include, David, Mary Magdalene, St. George, and Gattamelata. He became a pioneer in the field of sculpture inventing or reinventing many different perspectives and styles. Gattamelata was the first equestrian sculpture of the renaissance and was known for being especially well proportioned.

David was the first bronze freestanding sculpture ever, which provided stepping-stones for other artists to use many different materials. He also rediscovered the principle of weight-shift. During medieval times, artists created humans as if they were stiff rigid creatures, but Donatello drew on the idea that humans move in fluid motions and that weight is shifted from one leg to another in order to support the body. His successors mastered the idea of a moving human body and applied it to their paintings and sculptures thereafter. Not only did the bodies seem more fluid in movement, but its drapery as well.

This creates the sense that the figure did exist as a human covered by clothing as opposed to a stone structure with drapery permanently joined with it. Donatello also invented the idea of schiacciato or shallow relief where the image seems very deep while it actually is on a very shallow plane. He improved the art of perspective and depth. Donatello was very well known for being very realistic and raw with his art. He had the ability to be sympathetic yet honest at the same time in his work. He didn't embellish the beauty of his subjects.

For example, he was commissioned to depict 4 holy men and he shows them how they ought to be shown, enlightened religious zealots but poor. He didn't make them look like kings because he was honest. In his portrayal of Mary Magdalene, he shows an old and humble woman; dirty and clothed in her own hair praying to God. His realism makes her disgusting yet still noble. But, he didn't create worn out, old images of everyone, because he was honest and sympathetic.

When he was commissioned to create a sculpture of a woman and her baby, for example, it was sweet and each character was full of love for the other, because that would be the honest portrayal of that relationship. Donatello was a great artist that set the tone for many artists that came after him, especially sculptors, but he lived in a time of great turmoil. All of Italy had very little stability as far as politics go. It was made up of many little city-states that weren't unified. Each city-state was run by an oligarchy. The groups running the city-states were chosen based on wealth, so the government was corrupt because bribes could change everything. The other European states such as Spain and France were growing powerful and beginning to take over the smaller city-states in Italy.

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This is a free research paper on Donatello topic. Keep in mind that all free research project samples and research paper examples are taken from open sources – they are plagiarized and cannot be used as your own research project. If you need a qualitative custom research project on Donatello for college, university, Master's or PhD degree – you are welcome to contact professional research writing company to have your paper written online by academic research writers.
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Research Paper on African Americans

During the entire nineteenth century, the issues of and the questions about free Afro-Americans were very relevant. Since more and more Blacks became free from their masters, they had to somehow mingle in the society and adapt to regular social life among the white majority. The whites, however, in lieu of helping and supporting the “colored” minority purposefully deprived free African-Americans of human rights and imposed various restrictions. The attitude towards slaves and toward African-Americans on the whole was different in the South and in the North. The Northerners were less harsh to the Blacks and did not oppress their rights and wills as Southerners did.

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This way, more and more slaves acquired freedom either for money or due to ends of serving terms in the North, rather than in the South. Therefore, the majority of free blacks resided in the Northern part of the United States. The population of free Blacks in the U.S. by the end of the first half of the nineteenth century constituted over four hundred thousand people, or over nine percent of the entire African-American population. In the earlier years of free Blacks, the white majority could not accept them because naturally Afro-Americans were regarded as slaves.

And so any black person walking freely and openly on the streets was “nonsense.” Free blacks then were believed to represent a direct menace to white noble society. Not only free blacks were limited in their movements (they were not allowed to settle in several states in the North), they were forced to carry their freedom certificate on them wherever they went. In addition, the laws of the majority of Southern states made free blacks to have a white person as a guardian. Contacts with slaves were also constrained.

However, besides these social restrictions and discriminations, the most horrible manifestations of denial of whites to let them in the society as equal were the violent forays. The violence was eminent in the Northern states, especially in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio. Due to such kinds of aggressive oppressions, local courts forbade free blacks to reside Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois. After the fiasco of American Colonization Society, which attempted to deport as many as possible free Blacks out of the United States, their life did not improve. As regular citizens, Blacks had to fulfill their social and security needs, they had to work. In these area discrimination was extremely prominent and evident.

White employers refused openly to hire blacks as laborer, let alone managerial positions. In addition to scornful attitudes in business areas, free blacks were treated the same way in educational establishments. Also, nearly every state deprived free blacks a right to vote. Another manifestation of white racism was the dislodging African-Americans to particular regions or neighborhoods. Although allegedly the advantage consisted in the absence of the Blacks in the city streets, it was a hell for the Blacks and also fore the whites who dropped in the hood.

The poor free Negroes, not yet adapted to municipal social life, wasted their lives in the wet basements. For many reasons, most prominent of which were diseases and hunger, the rates of mortality of African-Americans became tremendous. It was the very white racism that circuitously led to thousands of deaths in misery. Despite the fact that African-Americans that have been liberated from slavery toils, the white society did not accept them as a class. Due to continuous oppressions and discriminations, the free “colored” minority experienced tough and harsh times, often living the last in misery and hunger.

And even though the desire to be American citizens was eminent in their hearts, the scornful and violent attitudes did play a huge role in the consecutive life of the Blacks. It is obvious that being under constant pressure would break a person, thus some of the free African-Americans supported the idea of moving away from the United States to more “dark” countries. However, the outcome of the white racism followed another, more brutal pattern. Even after the Civil war, the attitudes towards the Blacks has not been altered. And unfortunately, although in more an ulterior and circuitous form, white racism remains till now.

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This is a free research paper on African Americans topic. Keep in mind that all free research project samples and research paper examples are taken from open sources – they are plagiarized and cannot be used as your own research project. If you need a qualitative custom research project on African Americans for college, university, Master's or PhD degree – you are welcome to contact professional research writing company to have your paper written online by academic research writers.
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