Evaluate Our Rukun Negara Essay

Evaluate Our Rukun Negara Essay The principles of the Rukun Negara formulated by National Consultative Council with together headed by our second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak at 31 August 1970. The purpose of formation of this national principles are to created unity of various race in Malaysia after the riots of different races at May 13th 1969 in Malaysia. That riots happened had proven the Malaysian racial issues and stability had fragile. The formation of Rukun Negara are one of the method to overcome the racial issues between different races in Malaysia after the May 13th incidents has happened which involved hundreds of people are death in that particular incident. It happened when after election at year 1969 where Parti Tindakan Rakyat (DAP) dan Gerakan get a very good respond from the result of the election. Procession was held by them purpose for incident of one youth Chinese was killed in battle with policemen before the election was held. UMNO was felt be challenged of the result of the election although them still win the majority seats in parliament. Datuk Harun Idris led the riots happened. Purpose of this provocative procession happened was to set fire to the spirit of nationalism of every races in Malaysia. This riots happened until the police force was unable to control the situation. Army force had to be called to help police force to control the situations. This incidents has made all the leaders in Malaysia has realized of importance of unity issues of various races in the country. In the official report, there are totals of 493 people was injured and 196 people are reported death of that incidents. Emergency in the country was declared by our Yang Dipertua Agong, with advices from our first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman based on article 150 in constitution of federal Malaysia. The Rukun Negara can be related with several place that we visit in the trips. The first principle can related with Batu Caves and National Palaces. Batu Caves are rich with Hinduism cultural. The cultural still preserved until today that let us to enable to study and get to know the elements and everything cultural about Hinduism. National Palaces are rich with Islam religions and cultural. Inside the palaces, lot of architectures are follow Islam and mixed with Hinduism elements to build with it. Switch of the light and fans are made of gold plated, which represent the wealthy and higher class people in society. National Museum represent the place to let all the people to access the past cultural and present cultural in Malaysia. In museum, we can access different races occupations, cultural, rituals and behavior being practice in past and until current today in Malaysia. It also show us how the life, ritual and cultural of Orang Asli in Malaysia. Examine carefully the importance of Rukun Negara for our country; how it cultivate social structure and social organization in society. We are admitting that Rukun Negara was important to our country in Malaysia. Rukun Negara was created to meet its purpose of unity of various race in Malaysia, and prevent the riots of races happened again within the country. Analysis of each elements of national principles BELIEF IN GOD Nation and the State was created based on a strong belief in God. It would make the sovereign country or nation thru these religions belief. The Federal Constitution declared that Islam is the official religion, but other religion and beliefs can be practiced in freedom and tranquility. Any actions discrimination against any citizen on grounds based on religion are prohibited. Pillars of the drafters of the committee recognize the importance of belief in God and religion in human life. This principle has been selected as the first principle of the Rukun Negara to recognize the importance of community members holding robustness against their teaching of religious LOYALTY TO KING AND COUNTRY Malaysia practices a system of constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy with head of state, His Majesty the King. This element means that every citizen should be devoted faithful, honest and sincere to His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. At the state level, the citizens are required to devote loyalty to the king who ruled the land where they reside without reducing allegiance to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. THE SUPREMACY OF THE CONSTITUTION This principle pressing need for people to accept, obey and defend the Constitution of the country or glory. Constitution is the highest legal source. Its function is to provide protection to every citizen of this country because of their privileges and rights as citizens in this country. The Malaysian citizens are required to respect, appreciate, and understand the history, contents and definitions of the Constitution. Constitution was drafted based on consensus of all parties and races within the country. Thus the social contract that people cannot be questioned about it and threatened by any individual or any party. Constitution of Malaysia made for determine the pattern of socio-economic and political position of the citizens in this country. THE RULE OF LAW Justice based on the rule of law where all citizens equal before the law in the country legally. State law based on the Constitution. Thus the need to be accepted and defended its sovereignty. Without the law, social and state life is not peaceful and stable. By the laws of the country are guaranteed by an independent judiciary and competent. Every country needs laws to regulate and create peaceful, prosperity and stability in society. The existence of the law will guarantee a life member of the community can move with freedom and orderly, without any disturbance which not threated the safety of other citizens in the country. All citizens has right to practice freely as long as no violation of the law as well as things as guaranteed by the Constitution. The freedoms right declared in the Constitution does not means citizens have the right to overthrow the current government. COURTESY AND MORALITY These five principles to emphasize the development of ones personality and behavior of the people. The aim is to form citizens courtesy and manners in line with the campaign Courtesy and Noble Values à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹conducted now. Individual nature of courtesy and manners are the most important and meaningful in the elements of relationships with other various races within the country. Attitude of courtesy and manners should be taught and practiced to develop the individual as well as high discipline and morality that will help create harmonious in the society. Conduct hate and condemn this behavior or act arrogant or offend any person or class. Polite behavior within the person are contains of high degree of morality in his / her life. Importance of Rukun Negara are create unity among the different races, Chinese, Malay and Indians in Malaysia. In the national principles, it has avoid any racial issues happened between among the three main racial in the country. It was law binding for those go against with it will be arrested. National Principles also create function as a guidance in the formation of one nation in the country regardless of religion and race. It has become important guidelines for government in Malaysia ruled the country. (Utusan Online, 2004) National principles also creates the way of democracy life in the Malaysia nation. In the federal constitution, it was stated practice of democracy must in element for governing in nations of Malaysia. The constitution are almost same like United States. National principles also to serve purpose of the wealth in the nation shall be equitably shared among the nation. It also to ensure the liberal approach of diversity and rich of different cultural traditions within Malaysian nations. (Utusan Online, 2004) In first elements of national principles, not one were racial, each citizens of Malaysia was respect each other cultural, traditions and religions been practice by different races. In today, we can see the effects created by the national principle in our country, Malaysia. Every races still manage to get mixed well by each other. (Utusan Online, 2004) Different races mix well together Second element in national principles are made the citizens in Malaysia have love and loyalty to their country and Kings. Not only that, they are expected to be love their leaders as well. In Today, although we can see Sultan are functionless in our country, but Malaysians are not going to oppose the Sultan but to love the Sultan more and respect them as there are one of the leaders in Malaysia. We can saw Malaysia are developing far behind than Singapore. But, we still love our country as we can see the specialty of Malaysia are united three races in one nation one country, which this reasons are attracted the foreign tourists come and visit to Malaysia. (Utusan Online, 2004) Third elements in national principles enable the citizens in Malaysia live in democracy way in their country. There is freedom to practices their own rituals, cultural and also religious for each races. Every citizens have their right and own voice to protest the wrong doing in the society. Very good example are referring to Bersih Campaign. It is one of the democracy way for Malaysian citizens to voice out their dissatisfied with the wrong doing in past elections. (Utusan Online, 2004) Bersih Campaign The Law Binding were cultivate the society become more alert when they commit any illegal activity. One of the example, any drug trafficking was arrested and had been judged by court, it will received penalty as dead sentences in final. The last principle has enabled all the citizens to build up better or superior personality which consist good moral and behavior. The superior of personality are the important elements of the development of the country. It also able to avoid any riots happened within the country among the different race. In opposite, it able to create harmony among the race for helping each other, complement each other which gave a fast lane for a country to become developed country. Crime rate also can be reduced at the same time. Hence, the Ultimate goal of Rukun Negara also can be achieved at the same time. Different races of Bersih Activists help to save out the victim which hit by policemen car in Bersih Campaign. They eventually help policemen get out of the car after they save the victim of accident. In my opinion, national principles have its importance and it have affect the Malaysian society to get united even better compared with time at post- independent. In today, we can see everyone can have different races of friend in their life. The freedom of Malaysian citizen to practice their cultural and rituals without anyone restrictions are amazing, it has attracted the different country tourists just to come and visit the Malaysia for experiencing this multiracial cultural in Malaysia. In today, we able to see even we from different races but they really help each other when we have difficulty in some situations. My personal experience, when there are a accidents occurs, i can see the Malays and Indians come and help out each other. But, we still can see some group of people which have power in political and position which seen Rukun Negara as nothing. Here, i not wish to refer anyone in Malaysia, but we commonly know what is actually happened in our country. Death of Teoh Beng Hock was still became mystery until today, although court had given final judgment as he commit suicide. We still can see many corruptions happened around the country, which the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission cannot do anything on it because the excessive power involve which can overwrite everything and manage run away from judgments including legislative. In conclusion, Rukun Negara are play very important roles in Malaysia. It gave peace among our country. It also born good personality of the citizens, which love their everything in their home country. Unity among the races are become the specialty of Malaysia toward other countries in all around the world. Others discussion questions Examine Malaysian crime rate and analysis the statistics based on Roberts Merton s Typology of Deviance. In Robert Merton theory of Deviance typology, there are five elements. There are conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. Basically, he explain about deviants behavior becomes crime when the crime too disruptive and uncontrollable through informal sanctions. All forms of deviance are related with crime. (Tepperman Curtis, J., 2006) Conformity are refer to achieved of societal goals by social s means which both of them are accepted by society. Innovation is the attaining goals by using unacceptable way by the society. Innovators always think and take of creative ways to achieve their goals, which the creative ways are not accept by society at most of the times. Meanwhile, Ritualism is the means accepted by society but the loss of the goals. Although they has rejected the goals, but they still continue the means. Retreatism is the rejection of both the goals and means. They often find a way to escape from goals and means. Rebellion are same meaning with retreatism but they are with new goals and new means. Merton defined innovation and ritualism are the pure cases, it is because both cases there is a discontinue to implied and pursue between goals and means. (Tepperman Curtis, J., 2006) Based on Malaysia statistics related with crime and law, there are fourteen type of crimes. In concern of increase number of crimes are violent crimes, property crimes, commercial and serial commercial code crimes. Violent crimes are included case of murder, rape, fire armed gang robbery, gang robbery without firearms. Property crimes covered stealing of truck/van, car, snatch thefts and burglary. Commercial crimes covered those trick in business deal, criminal breach of trust, the fraudulent misuse of property and others related. (Statistical of Goverment Malaysia) Relation between Malaysia crime rate and Robert Merton theory, He try to stated that deviances. There is an adaptation by the people to dominant the culture in the society. As the grows between the means and goals, the people will experienced the most internal conflict. Good example, a poor people desired middle class people goal, such as a new LCD television in the home. They find difficulty of means to achieve their goals, in result they felt stress. He argued that they use illegitimate way to accomplish a legitimate goal. Very good example, stealing are one of related element of crimes rate and Robert theory. Thief choose to use stealing ways to achieve their goal of acquire money to survive in this society. This term called as innovations, and the thief called as innovators. Ritualism has some similarity problems with innovators experience. But, they choose to refuse for attaining the goal, and continue with their means (ways to achieve the goal). Example, some people know the way of they achieve the goal are not going to work, but they still practice the ways. Best way to describe retreatism are referring to drug addicts. They did not choose the way to achieve the goal, they also refuse to achieve to goal. They choose to escape from everything. Rebellion are referring group of people or individual who reject the norms, goals, and values of society, which they choose go for another new norms, goals, and values which do not exist in that particular society. Sometime, it is a society itself led the crime happened. Examples, everyone was addicted with the New IPhone which cost very expensive in price. But, because of the societys demand pressure, everyone essential has one by themselves. Some of them might be not afford, they choose perform deviance ways to achieve the cost which enables they to buy the phone, including steal, rob and involved in prostitutions. Father and mother should play a very important role in teaching their children which are ethical ways to perform a decision. It same go with teachers and lecturers in study institutions. Morality values should focus by the teachers in school for their student. Father and mother should become of role to be teach their children should not fall into the trick of deviance typology. In conclusion, everyone has the responsibility for judge whether the ethical decision has been made for majority benefit and agreement in the society. Evaluate the status of women in terms of career and education in Malaysia compare with United States, Kuwait and Nigeria. Status of women in different country has different answer of it. Example, women in Malaysia are far better than women in Middle East countries, which they are more pity, less educated and only play important role in family for caring the children in the home. There are heavy discrimination of women in Middle East countries. Generally, women in Malaysia are consider lucky. They able to receive education and handle certain higher position in several multi-national company. Although, there are small number of discriminations toward to the women, but the situation still consider small matter if compared with Nigeria and other Middle East countries. Malaysia government gave lot of supports for concert their rights to make decisions and advance, aspect of health, education, women in social welfare, and removal of legal obstacles. Formation of the Womens Affairs Ministry in Malaysia at year 2001 to recognize the contributions and the roles of Malaysian women. Based on data of the world bank at year 2011, 47 % of labor force in Malaysia are women. In any study institutions, we able to see majority of students are consisted of female. (The World Bank Group, 2013) Today, women in Kuwait generally consider most emancipated. They have right to drive, travel, and work without their fathers or husbands consent. They even hold senior positions in government department. They basically can work freely and can achieve positions of power and influence. (Womens Voting Rights in Kuwait, n.d.)They also gain right to vote at last at election at year 2005. (BBC News, 2005) In year 2009, they able to get their own passport without his consent of his husband and father too. The change of the ruler in the country in result of election has change the destiny of women in that particular country. There even has women work in police force, special force and army force. Basically, women in Kuwait get equal opportunity of occupational. But, Women in Kuwait get some social discrimination. In Islamic law, Sunni Islamic women inherit only a portion of property from family. Women in Kuwait are receive enough education compared than women in Nigeria. Women in Nigeria are pitiful. They did not enjoy their equal rights as like women in other country. Because of polygamy practice of male in Nigeria, women cannot expect faithful from their husbands. Women are expected to bear humiliation and suffer in silence. Women taken suffer from any venereal diseases, including HIV/AIDS without any words spoken from their mouth. Nigeria women get lower status in the family even had married with her husband. They often get violence from their husband. The economy pressure (higher poverty) led they work as prostitution in their home country. This also one of the reason they get inflection of STD and HIV virus. Nevertheless, majority of them are less educated. Most of the time, women in Nigeria are spend lot of time in house to do their household stuffs. They never have chance work in outside work as like men in Nigeria. (Women in Nigeria: Religion, Culture, and AIDS, 2003) In today, women in United States are gain most freedom in all around the world. According to OECD report, 71% of men are in paid work, compared with 62% of women. In education aspect, This is truer of women than men, as 88% of men have successfully completed high-school compared with 90% of women. ( OECD, n.d.) Across the economy, women now earn 81 cents for every dollar earned by men. According to Forbes (2013), Women are get best paying of wages in place number four of job of health care sectors. (Forbes, 2013) According to the David Alexander and Phil Stewart (2013), US remove lift ban of women involved in role of front line combat. It has release thousands of job opportunity to women in Unite States. (Alexander Phil Stewart, 2013) Education status of women in unite state are far better than any women in Kuwait, Malaysia and Nigeria. According to the United States Census Bureau, there more women attained bachelor degree than men in education. It has shown women get more freedom and opportunity of education in United States. (United States Census Bureau, 2011) In conclusion, my opinion about women toward career and education term should be equal same as male. Women should have the equal right same like male, because they also same like male. We should exploit and limited them to involve with the things as they like to be.

Marketing Strategy For Entering New Zealand Market Marketing Essay

Marketing Strategy For Entering New Zealand Market Marketing Essay Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand. It has approximately 401,500 people live within the city boundary and 1.25 million in the greater Auckland area. This represents about one third of the population of the whole country. Auckland City (informally Central Auckland) is the city and local authority covering the Auckland isthmus and most of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, in the North Island of New Zealand. It lies in the Auckland Region, and the Auckland Regional Council is also based in Auckland City. In 2009, it was rated the 4th best place to live in the world, in human resources consultancy Mercers annual survey.  Thus, Auckland is a potential market. In order to market Auckland, we are going to launch out Malaysia local foods, satay. Satay is a type of foods that are grilled or barbecued over a wood or charcoal fire, then served with various spicy seasonings. Satay is cheap and easily prepared if you are experienced worker. We are launching traditional satay which has six types of satay meat. Six types of satay meats that we launched out are mutton, beef, rabbit, deer, chicken, and fish. We will produce our own secret recipe that cannot be found in others place. It is use to attract the local market of Auckland. Our objective is to lets the foreigner experience new flavour and new sensation of Malaysia local food. In making consideration of the health issues, our satay is modified to be less oil, less calories and less fat. We will set up our own outlet that has traditional design of Malaysia style. Customers can feel the Malaysian culture when they come to our outlet. Waiter and waitress in our outlet are required to wear the custom of Malaysian style. The speciality of our outlet is customers are able to see the satay producing process. Besides that, online purchase service also available. Customers can either purchase satay directly from our outlet or indirectly by online booking. These make them more convenience. Delivery services are also provided and free of charge if it is within specific area. Price Price is one of the important issues in marketing mix that determine whether a product can be success or not. Price that we offer is following ethical issue. We are using penetration strategy to attract the customers. Difference types of satay meats are charge at difference prices. Customers can get special discount when they reach certain level of consumption. Low price but high quality of foods is provided. There is no price discrimination to end customer which is an illegal actions. Promotion Promotion efforts that we offered to local people of Auckland are include flyers, newspaper, free sample, cash vouchers, delivery services and weekly discount. If we can promote our products and outlet well, customers will automatically come to us. Flyers and newspaper are more economic ways to promote certain product. Due to we are relatively new in Auckland, we have to heavily promote our products and outlets to reach the sales. Free sample for testing are only available in the first three months of opening. As a conclusion, we are target to tourists and local people in Auckland. In short term, we wish to add on new types of satay such as satay celup and satay lok-lok. We will expand to other city in New Zealand when the market is mature and able to expand. Macro environment analysis PESTEL analysis Introduction PESTEL analysis is an external analysis of the macro-environment in which a business operates. The main objective is to understand the affect of those reasons on business or trade policy because external factors of a country are different within each others. Therefore, we should choose a suitable location to operate the business by viewing the analysis to ensure that the business has potential to enter the country. The country that we had chosen to analyse is in New Zealand which is Auckland. Our analysis is based on three main factors which are political and legal factor, economy factor and finally social and culture factor. Political and legal factor To run a business at other country, one of the important factors which affect trade policy is their legal rules, regulations and their government. Each of the worlds national government regulates trade and commerce with other countries and controls the access of outside enterprises to national resources. The operations and activities of the global enterprise, including the global marketers ability to address market opportunities and threats are affected by every countrys unique legal and regulatory system. The risk is lesser if the government is stable. This is because legal rules and regulations would not be change in short period. In Auckland, the risk of operating new business is high. This is because after every three year, the new government of New Zealand will apply new rules and regulations which benefit for an organization. So, although a business can going into the market in this year, but it does not meant that it can permanently set up at Auckland due to the new rules and regulations. Therefore, before our satay business is going in the market of Auckland, we need to analysis and do estimation on the rules and regulations of Auckland. This is to ensure our business can live longer at Auckland and can survive in Auckland market. Beside the risk of operate business, the labour force is very expensive in New Zealand. Labour force in New Zealand is highly appreciated, thus the labour are given high salary. The labour force in Auckland is also same situation with New Zealand. Due to the high labour force, we planned to assign some of the workers from Malaysia to operate the business in Auckland. This can save our operating expenses. However, we still need to hire local workers because of the local people more understanding the rules and regulations of their own country. Thus, if there are changes in rules and regulations in New Zealand, we can do some adjustment pander to the changes. To operate new business, every organization needs a vast amount of money. The lending rate in New Zealand is high, company has to paid more interest. This situation could be good for the government but it might reduce the profit of a company. The capital of our satay business needs to be high to prevent lending money from government of New Zealand. Exporting a business to New Zealand is already high cost activity, if our business still needs to bare the high lending interest, it will be very hard to earn profits. This is because the profits had been used to pay the high lending interest. Thus, our business needs to have a large amount of capital to export the business to Auckland. Business freedom in New Zealand is 99. 9 % and trade freedom is 84.6 %. It meant that New Zealand has better environment to do business and trading. Due to the freedom of government of New Zealand, our satay business can be exported to Auckland. There is less restriction on doing business in Auckland. The government allows the business to create their own market. Any business that the businessmen want to do, they can apply for the license. The license will always be approved by the government. Therefore, we can easily bring our satay business into Auckland. Economy Factor Inflation rate is less in New Zealand. If inflation rate is low, every commodity and service such as labour, rice, sugar and others products will available at low price where as the organization can produce more. Therefore, we can buy the local products with a low price and fully utilized the resources to increase the productivity. By the lower price of resources, we can launch our business successfully because we need not to worry about the high operating expenses. We can spend our money in other activities that need more investment such as advertising. In New Zealand, people prefer to spend more to help carry on the circulation of money all over the country by buy capital goods, luxuries products and necessary products. This meant that they support their local products. They like to buy their own country product to help the economic growth. In this situation, we decide to buy mutton and beef from New Zealand. We will let our consumers know that our satay is made by the mutton and beef come from their own country. Since they are supporting local products, they will tend to support our satay that produced by local mutton and beef. Moreover, the unemployment rate in New Zealand is low. The citizen will have their own work. Therefore, they have purchasing power that allowed them to buy the products they like. The consumers will consume from the shop because they have money to consume products that they prefer. Our satay is not very expensive compare to local food. If the consumers found that our satay is much better than their expectation, the will consume more. Once the food is cheaper and delicious than other, the consumers can be attracted easily. Social and Culture factor Every country has different culture to each other. New Zealand has majority of Christians religion. According to the 2006 census, Christianity is the predominant religion in New Zealand, which have 55.6% of the population, another 34.7% had no religion and around 4% affiliated with other religions. The Christians have no much restriction about the food that take. Not like Muslims, they have more restriction on food. Therefore, the Christians can choose the food they prefer to have. Besides, the consumption and imports of foods and beverage and electronic gadgets will increase during festival like Christmas in New Zealand. This is because the Christians are concern on their special festival. They prefer cook some special foods and invite their relatives and friends to have a gathering. Thus, our satay maybe can be a choice for them to serve their relatives and friends. Moreover, New Zealand is concern in education sector. 99% of populations are literate in New Zealand. Education sector contributed 6.2% to New Zealand GDP. New Zealand is famous on education sector. Many foreign students are study English and mostly foreigner study in university at New Zealand. One of the famous universities in New Zealand is University Of Auckland. The floating population in Auckland is high due to the famous university. This is an opportunity for our business to launch in Auckland. The population is high and we can target on the students. Students always dare to try new things and they always search for new things to try. Thus, we can attract the students by promoting our satay to them. Furthermore, life expectancy rate is more and mortality rate is low in New Zealand. This is because their lifestyle is free and less stress, they do not like to stay in stressful life. They prefer leisurely lifestyle. After work, they would not think about the work again. They will clear their mind and enjoy their rest time. Thus, they like to do some leisure activities such as go for a walk in the park. One of the famous parks in Auckland is Albert Park. The Auckland citizen will visit to the park during their leisure time. Therefore, we can target on this group of people. They maybe will like to have their meal after they tired and feel hungry because our satay shop is near the park. By giving some flyers to the people, they will acknowledge that there have a stall just set up and they maybe will try it. Conclusion As a conclusion, our business should do enough survey and analysis before going into the New Zealand market to ensure that our business can successfully launch at Auckland. Moreover, the analysis will help us to prevent loss because it does not make sense if we export a business that does not have potential market in the country. In such situation, we will not bring the business into the country. Thus, we will not jump into the loss stage in business because of launching a failure business in a not suitable country. Besides, we can also reduce the risk of operating new business in foreign country if we practise macro environment analysis. This is because we have enough knowledge about the environment factors of the country and we have to judge whether the country has potential for us to export the business. Furthermore, our satay business is discovering a new market in Auckland because there were few store that selling satay. Satay is considered as a new product because satay is a type of traditional food from Malaysia. If the local people have noticed that our satay is met their expectation on food, they will eat at our store. Global Market Segmentation Introduction Market segmentation is an effort to identify and categorize a group of customers and countries according to common characteristics such as gender, income and education level. Global Market Segmentation is defined as the process that identifies specific segments of potential customers with homogeneous attributes who exhibit similar responses to a marketing mix. There are five types of Global Marketing Segmentation which are demographic, psychographic, behavioural characteristics, benefit sought and ethnic. Our satay shop is using the demographic segmentation and psychographic segmentation. Demographic segmentation Demographic segmentation is based on characteristics such as income, population size, age distribution, gender, education, and occupation. We have chosen the income to segment the market. We have segmented the market by using income. There are three level of income segmentation which is high income level, middle income level and low income level. High income level is referred to the people that have income NZ$ 5000 and above each month. Middle income level is referred to the people that have income NZ$ 3500 to NZ$ 5000 each month. While income below NZ$ 3500 is considered as low income level. These situations are because of the living costs in New Zealand is very high. The activities that involve labour force will charge at a high price. The rental of house is also very high in New Zealand. Psychographic segmentation Psychographic segmentation is grouping people by their attitudes, values and lifestyles. By analyze the attitudes, values and lifestyles of the people, we can segment them into different groups. There are several groups of people that stay in Auckland which are students and citizen of Auckland. Students have a high floating population because New Zealand is famous and concern on its education sector. Therefore, there are many local and foreign students that study in Auckland. Citizen is the local people that born and live in Auckland. Different groups of people have different attitudes, values and lifestyle. We are segmenting them based on two aspects which are values and lifestyle. From values aspects, the students are daring to try new things. Thus, promoting is encouraged to the students. They can easily be attracted and dare to try for the things. Meanwhile the citizen is more traditional because they had been affected by the culture. They need to be given more information to motivate them to try the new things. Moreover, from lifestyle aspects, the students are tried to save their living costs. Therefore, they will seldom having meals at the shops. They will cook at home to save the money. Our satay is selling at a low price that afford by the students. Besides, the citizen of Auckland also preferred leisurely lifestyle. From our analysis, we found that the citizen of Auckland do not think about the work after the ended of working hours. So, they can have meals at our shop to reduce their annoyance for what to cook for the day. Conclusion There are different values for students and citizen of Auckland but both of them have similar lifestyle. Therefore, different promotion strategies have to use to attract these groups of people. By segmenting the market into smaller groups, we can determine what we can do to attract the consumers and gain the market share. Targeting Introduction Targeting is defined as the process of evaluating the segments and focusing marketing efforts on a country, region, or group of people that has significant potential to respond. Such targeting is reflected to the reality that a company should identify consumers to reach most effectively, efficiently, and profitably. We are target on middle income level people and mainly target in students. Middle Income Level People We are targeting on middle income people because middle income people will always find for the foods that are delicious but not looking at the price to judge whether the food is good or not. High income people always look for the food that is expensive. They will perceive price as the quality of the food. Thus, we are not aiming for high income people. Middle income people are our target. Middle income people will seldom perceive the price as the quality of the foods. Therefore, they will be attracted if the food is delicious and met their expectation. However, the price of satay is not very high compare to other local food in Auckland. Therefore, for the people that having a low income also can taste our satay. Students Students have a high floating population in Auckland because of the famous of education sector in New Zealand. Students are our target is because the values of students. The mind set of students are more open, they dare to try. Thus, if the promotion can attract their attention, they will find out whether the food is good or not. They can accept new taste more easily. Besides, to save the living costs in Auckland, many students have tried to cook by their own. However, sometimes they have no time for cook. Thus, our satay shop can help them solve the problems. The price of satay is not very expensive and they can have their meals in our shop. It is a low spending and also brings convenience to them. Conclusion By concentrate on target market, we can understand better what the market wants and needs. We can try to fulfil the needs and wants of the consumers to bring more satisfaction to them for maintaining our long term relationship that may affect our profits in long term. Justification of new business venture Why our company choose satay as our new venture to enter Auckland, New Zealand? There are few reasons that prove there are opportunities on our product. Everything starts with the customer. We pride ourselves in knowing whats going on in the minds of our consumers. We spend vast amounts of time each year researching the markets where we operate and our customers changing tastes and lifestyle habits. We know what our customers want now. Fusion of Asian recipes In restaurants and at home, New Zealanders are enthusiastic about the fusion of traditional Asian recipes with fresh New Zealand produce. Authentic ingredients for Asian cooking are available in most supermarkets and specialty food stores. This means that New Zealanders can accept well and quite interests on Asian cooking style. So, satay also can be accepted by New Zealanders, since satay is also one of the most popular foods toward Asian and it has a very high potential market value in food industry. It can be seen when the tourist having their vocation in Malaysia, they like to try local foods such as nasi lemak and laksa. No or less competitions Since satay is Malaysias local foods, it is only little or few competition for us. in New Zealand, thus our company biggest advantage is we are the pioneer in producing satay in New Zealand. So, our company will not face any competitor in same sector. Besides that, New Zealand is a very good place for growing things. At present, much of what we grow is on the basis of potential export receipts (cows, pines). So, our company will not facing any shortages in raw resources such as beef. Since New Zealanders like to eat beef, so our company will firstly decide to produce beef satay by fresh beef to introduce to domestic citizens. Low start-up cost Another reason that make we choose Auckland to start new venture is our company has advantage such as low start-up cost and low producing cost .Since satay is a quite simple food to produce, the material handling cost are low. It does not require investing in research and development. It just requires some labour skills and fixed machine. We have to paid fixed amount of salaries to employ the experience workers and buying the machine. Besides that, New Zealand is famous with the production of cow and sheep. From the date that we recovery ,we found out that the number of sheep and cow in New Zealand are more than nine times if compared with the population in New Zealand. We can easily get raw material from local supplier. It saves a lot of cost. We also no need to worry about shortage of raw material. Lifestyle Malaysian is looking for fast foods to counter caused by their busy lifestyles. The lifestyles of New Zealanders are slightly difference with Malaysian. They are very busy and serious during work. So, as a result they do not bring work into home. They know how to enjoy their life. Our company is decide to make satay as a part of fast food which can satisfied those who are always in busy lifestyle since it is easy to consume. However, nowadays, consumers are also looking for foods to counter poor health caused by busy lifestyles, insufficient exercise and fast food. As a consequence, people all over the world are recognizing that diet is important to their health. So our company will introduce low fat satay which can let consumer eat in a healthier way but still can taste a delicious satay. Our satay is low calories, low fat and less oil. Besides that, consumers want to know that their food is safe, and proof of claims is becoming a key requirement, especially in the health benefit ar ea. Certification and tracking of food production for safety reasons is increasing. There is a growing desire for safe food. Our company products are all have been clinically tested and proven that satay is safe to eat. As a conclusion, the above reasons make our company interested to start new venture in Auckland. It is really an interested facts that encourage we to do so. Product strategy Satay The product that we plan to launch out in Auckland, New Zealand is satay. Satay can be found throughout every state in Malaysia either in restaurant or beside street. Popular kinds of satay are usually pork satay, beef satay, and chicken satay. Difference cultures may have difference types of satay. For an example, Indonesias satay is different with Singapores satay. A variation of meat satay is the satay lok-lok from Penang and satay celup from Malacca. Raw meat pieces, tofu pieces, century eggs, quail eggs, fish cake pieces, offal or vegetable pieces are skewered on bamboo sticks. These are cooked by being dipped in boiling water or stock. The satay is eaten with a blackish sweet sauce with or without chili sauce. If the satay is eaten with satay sauce, it is called satay lok-lok. If the satay is cooked with boiling satay peanut sauce, it is called satay celup. This is available either from street vendors or at certain restaurants. We are selling traditional satay in Auckland. We do not selling satay lok-lok or satay celup. When the market share are increase and become more stable, we will try to add on other types of satay. There are total six types of satay meat that we will launch out in Auckland. The six types of meat satay are chicken, mutton, beef, deer, fish, and rabbit. As you can see, we do not sell pork satay. This is because one of our target markets is tourists. The tourists may be including other religion such as Muslim. In order to attract this type of tourists, we do not launch out pork satay. Different types of satay will be selling at different price. The satay that we sell is in the form of string. Before the satay are grilled or barbecued over a wood or charcoal fire, it must first marinate by turmeric and other seasoning. Turmeric will be used to marinate satay, which gives the dish its characteristic yellow colours. After marinated, satay is stringed to the midrib of the coconut leaf. After that, satay will be grilled or barbecued over a wood or charcoal. We are using traditional ways to grill the satay. The charcoal fire can make satay tasty. Lastly, satay is served with various spicy seasonings. We will serve our satay with a spicy peanut sauce dip, or peanut gravy, slivers of onions and cucumbers, bread and ketupat (rice cakes). Our sauce includes ground chilli, onion, tomato, shrimp, oil, and nuts inside. We also will make our secret recipe sauce to attract difference taste of customers. Customers can choose either they want spicy sauce or sweet sauce. Beef and mutton that our restaurant will use is all origin from New Zealand. This is because European prefers to eat beef and mutton that origin from their own country. Besides that they also more trusted to those which are come from their country since it has been approve by their Hygienic Agency that the meat is totally safe to be eat and free of harmful virus. Thus, European are also culture that support to their country so if our restaurant use material that origin from their own country it will encourage them to purchase more in our restaurant and also will ensure them come back over and over again. People nowadays are more concern about their health. They no longer prefer oily foods. If we did not customization our satay to meet local demand, then it will bring failure for us. Due to this, our satay is modifying to become less oil and less salts. We are also following the ethical issue. We will definitely provide clean and healthy satay. We will ensure that the supplier will provide us healthy meats and are ethically. Besides that, all of our workers are need to wearing gloves to ensure the cleanliness. Experienced cook and worker are employ in our outlet to make sure the flavour of satay will perform well. Herbal tea Our restaurant also provides traditional Chinese herbal tea such as chrysanthemum tea, Chinese watermelon tea, barley, siraitia prosvenorii (luo han guo) and herbal jelly . We provide Chinese herbal tea is because herbal tea can bring many health benefits for humans body. The health benefits of herbal tea are capable of keeping balance, control over cholesterol, clearing heat, neutralizing toxins, and protecting the liver. Since our satay are grilled or barbecued over a wood or charcoal fire, herbal tea can help our consumer clearing heat and neutralizing toxins after eating the satay. Teh tarik and others Furthermore, because our food is a traditional food in Malaysia, we also have provide traditional drinks in Malaysia such as teh tarik . Teh tarik is a common and favourite drink for Malaysians. Teh tarik is very easy to prepare because the ingredients are black tea and condensed milk. However, we also will provide sky juice and soft drinks for our consumers. This is because not all the consumers can accept the taste of Chinese herbal tea and local teh tarik. We need to provide some drinks which acceptable by the consumers. Distribution Channel We will distribute our satay by two ways, either by own outlet or online mode. Outlet We will open our first satay shop in Auckland. We will set up our own and specific outlet in New Zealand. We are using Malaysian styles of design. When customers walk in to our outlet, they will feel and experience the Malaysian style. Waiter and waitress are required to wear Malaysia customs. Therefore, when customers are visiting to our outlet, they can really impressed by our culture. One speciality of our outlet is customers can see the process of producing satay. Our restaurants seat can be found in personal seat, couple seats, four person seats, six person seats, and ten person seats. Customers can choose either to dine in or take away. Besides the residents, it also consists of the most potential customer for our shop. There are many students that study in this city no matter local students or foreign students. Students like to hanging around after school with their friends whether they go to shopping mall or having their meal together. Usually they prefer special meal that th ey seldom or never taste before. They will also take consideration into the price issue. Our satay is suitable food for them. Satay is a kind of food that origin from Malaysia. So, it is quite special and unique in Auckland. For sure students will like it since them always curious and excited to something that is relatively new for them and them willing to pay for a try. Besides that, Auckland is the retail and commercial centre of New Zealand. Workers that have monthly salary will have a higher purchasing power which also means that they also are our shop important potential customer. A higher purchasing power will encourage them to purchase more in our shop. Workers also like to find some place to relax after they finish their work in office. Our shop provides them a place to enjoy their delicious meal, have a good conservation with their friends, and a place to enjoy the culture of others. Another important potential customer is tourism. Auckland is the gateway to New Zealand for tourism and immigration. Every year there are more than 6digits of tourism that tour to Auckland and this provide our shop a chance to earn money from them. Our shop provides a perfect environment for tourism to rest and full their empty stomach. Our shop will have a good view of seaside in front of our shop which will present a comfortable environment for our customer while they enjoying their meal especially for tourism who purposely come to Auckland because of the beauty of landscape of Auckland. Drive-thru service We will open a drive-thru window to lets customers enjoy more convenience services. Due to the busy lifestyle, consumers are more prefer the fast services. They try to find out ways that bring convenience for them. Citizen of Auckland prefers drive their own vehicle to travel. As we know that, 95% of Auckland citizen are travelling by their own vehicles. Therefore, the parking lots maybe is insufficient for the number of vehicles. Thus, we should have drive-thru service to provide convenience for consumers who cannot find the parking lots. Besides that, drive-thru service also convenience for office workers. This is because during lunch time hour, they are prefer meal which is fast and easy to consume. For them, drive thru service will become their first choice service because they can get their meal at the time and straight away can drive their vehicle leave the restaurant. Furthermore, for consumer who ordering food from our officer website, they also can get their food from drive thru service in order to save their time for searching to the parking lot. Sometimes there are not enough seats for consumers during peak season such as Christmas and New Year celebration. For consumers who want to eat our satay but do not have patient to waiting for our restaurant seats, they may just purchase satay by using our drive thru service and enjoy satay at their home with their friends and family. Online mode For online mode, customers can visit to our restaurants officer website to make their orders. Menu will be display in our officer website. Picture of meals and drinks will be display in the menu so that customer can easily know what foods are available. These make them easy to make order too. Quality and time can be selected inside the order blanket. Besides that, customers can also select type of meat that they want for their satay. Type of sauces will be serving based on the customers want and needs. Customers can also order drinks previously at our officer website if they not willing to waste time

Impact on the People of Nigeria by Muslims, French and British Essay

Africans have been migrating through out the continent, including Nigeria, long before there was even written record. Because of this, there has always been an extensive amount of inter-mingling between various ethnic groups, making it difficult to actually trace back who came from where. Aside from this amalgamation, there has been a huge impact on the peoples of Nigeria by outside forces. In particular, three major groups that had a major impact were Muslim merchants from across the Sahara, British slave traders and eventual colonizers, and the French and British Christian missionaries. The combination of these three groups has had both an economic and cultural impact on Nigeria that is still present today. External penetration of Nigeria started as early as the 9th century AD when Muslim merchants from western Sudan, Maghreb, Tripolitania and Egypt started traveling across the Sahara with camel caravans in search of trade. Over the course of the next six centuries, Islam became accepted widely in the north, especially among the Hausa and Fulani, and not only as a religion. It also imposed a central government, segregated the sexes, influenced language and script, and established a hierarchical class system that was not there beforehand. Islam did not spread south because of the dense tropical forest that divides Nigeria into north and south. This also caused the two regions to â€Å"develop† at different rates because while the south was still alien to Europeans, the north was expanding culturally and economically because of its deep involvement with the trans-Sahara trade routes. The peoples of the south remained untouched by Europeans until the 1470’s when Portuguese explorers, under the inspiration and guidance of Henry the Navigator, arrived and traded spirits, cloth, guns and gunpowder for slaves. The Portuguese did not really have much of a cultural effect on the indigenous people (besides the slowly diminishing population). This is because they rarely traveled farther than the coast, if they even left the ships. Eventually the British ships were dropping anchor along Nigeria’s coast after Britain realized the extent of the profits the Portuguese were making and what they could reap from slavery. By 1712 they had established a slave monopoly along the west coast. Chiefs and African slave traders brought slaves to shipside in exchange for Eu... ...t of Nigerians resorted to migration when fighting didn’t work. It is ironic how when one country tries to take over another in a forceful manner, it is met by some form of resistance but if the country introduces itself through trade it is accepted with open arms. The Muslims did not intend to rule over anyone. They were there to make deals and trade goods. Muslim conversion was gradual and voluntary and spanned over six centuries. There is little evidence about wars between Muslims and Nigerians. Also, many Nigerians are proud to be part of the Muslim culture in the north, even if they are from the south, because of its historical tradition, distinctive architecture, useful language, Islamic faith and because it is an alternative to white European culture. The British were the ones that forcefully took people’s land and family members. They were accepted at first, but they betrayed the trust of the people and exploited them for Britain’s gain for over 400 years. Many educated Nigerians today feel that if it weren’t for the slave trade and colonialism, they would be living in a much more modern and progressive country at this time. It is no wonder that they resent the British.

The End of the World Essay -- Movies Films Science Fiction Essays

The End of the World In writing definitively about American films of the nineteen fifties, Douglas Brode refers to the societal hysteria resulting from fear of both the communist threat and the possibility of nuclear war. Accompanying this general state of mind was the emergence of the science fiction film as a major genre. Titles in the genre dealt with fantasy topics ranging from alien invasion (The Thing, 1951, or Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956), to biologial "missing links" (The Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954), to the bizarre side-effects of nuclear contamination (The Incredible Shrinking Man, 1957), or to actual nuclear war (The World, the Flesh and The Devil, 1959). Another interesting example of this last category is Stanley Kramer's On the Beach, released in the last month of a decade which would be remembered for its omnipresent bomb culture. As the turn of the decade approached, some changes were apparent. At the same time that exchanges between Eisenhower and Khrushchev were bringing new, less frightening discourses to the political arena, Kramer's film in the bomb culture tradition negotiated new approaches to the depiction of the nuclear threat. As is so often the case in genre studies, On the Beach should be considered in terms of how it is representative of the context from which it emerged, but also in terms of what makes it unique. Through such an examination, as well as a survey of the impact that the film had upon its audiences, I hope to discuss On the Beach as integral in a culture of the bomb which spoke proactively and unequivocally against nuclear armament. Bomb Culture & Science Fiction in the Fifties "As the notion of an all-out nuclear confrontation became a viable possibility, w... ...reatly changed from Arnold's day) for their evocation of some part of each of us which reaches toward others in defense against a world which can be truly frightening. On the Beach is much the same. Aesthetically and narratively, it is impressive; it would be difficult not to be moved by the final honest exchange between Admiral Bridie and Lieut. Hosgood; the reflection of the young husband and wife as they recall their first meeting; or the chilling void of a grey, white and black world in which people used to live. Produced as part of the culture under- the-bomb, On the Beach speaks memorably of that specific context; produced as a carefully planned passionate requiem on the potency and vulnerability of human existence, it transcends this context, and reminds us today that no matter what the threat, as long as there is the human spirit, there is "still time."

Microscopy of Living Microbes

Purpose: To prepare students to familiarize themselves with the lab equipment such as the microscope, square glass, cover slips, etc.; to facilitate students to observe the pond water; and enable them to discern and identify the microbes as bacteria, algae, fungi, or protozoa within the pond water. Additionally, this lab experiment will permit students to observe and distinguish the yeast suspension from the other microbes.Data/Results: (Attached)Conclusion: The student acquired the fundamental skills in which to properly handle lab equipment and execute an experiment. By examining the pond water with the 40X lens, the student was able to distinguish and identify the protozoa with cilia: colpidium, which was recognized by its unique oval shape, resembling a peanut, with small hair-like particles comprising the entire surface, and the vascular plant, which was discrete due to its array of composition of cells.By examining the pond water with the 100X lens, the student was able to diff erentiate and classify 1) the cyanobacteria: nostoc due to its distinctive S shape and beads with surrounding cells, 2) two nematodes (phylum nematoda) parallel to one another (the nematodes appeared as slender worms, colorless, and encompassed of cells), and 3) the cyanobacteria: anabaena, which was blue-green in its feature with long filaments of cells (resembling a seaweed structure). By examining the yeast suspension with the 40X lens, the student observed millions of budding yeast cell structures. The student was able to discern between the various structures of pond water microorganisms, such as cilia and algae, and the yeast suspension cellular material.Questions:1. What is Brownian motion and why is it generally seen when bacteria are observed in liquid media? Some bacteria, perhaps many in your presentation did not display Brownian motion. Why is that? Brownian motion is a non-directional movement triggered when cells are blasted by water molecules. Brownian motion is gener ally seen when bacteria are observed in liquid media primarily by the production of gas that bacteria yields, which is converted into liquid fluids. Thus, some bacteria, many in the experiment presentation, did not display Brownian motion because of the lack of energy of the system and the absence of flagella that impels bacteria to move voluntarily.2. How can Brownian motion be distinguished from motility?As mentioned previously, Brownian motion is a non-directional movement triggered when cells are blasted by water molecules whereas motility is the capability of an organism to independently move either towards or away from a specific stimulus. Therefore, Brownian motion is distinguishable from motility due to it being a false movement while motility enables organisms to transfer by means of flagellum, endoflagella, or axil filaments. 3. What are flagella? What is the difference between bacterial flagella and eukaryotic flagella?Flagella are long protein structures responsible for most type of prokaryotic motility and also propel cells through liquid. Bacterial flagella, which are also referred to as prokaryotic flagella, are smaller than eukaryotic flagella and have a simple structure, are made up of protein flagellin that provides a mechanism of motility, are proton driven, and have a rotatory movement. On the other hand, eukaryotic flagella have a larger and more complex configuration, are composed of tubulin that delivers a mechanism of locomotion, are ATP driven, and have a bending movement.4. In wet mount preparations, is it possible to see eukaryotic flagella? Prokaryotic flagella? In wet mount preparations, it is possible to see eukaryotic flagella, but it is not possible to see prokaryotic flagella. 5. Does crystal clear pond water contain living bacteria? What about air? Your finger? All things that are not sterile do contain living bacteria such as pond water, air, and fingers.

Applying Servqual to Web Sites: an Exploratory Study

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management Emerald Article: Applying SERVQUAL to Web sites: an exploratory study Jos van Iwaarden, Ton van der Wiele, Leslie Ball, Robert Millen Article information: To cite this document: Jos van Iwaarden, Ton van der Wiele, Leslie Ball, Robert Millen, (2003),†Applying SERVQUAL to Web sites: an exploratory study†, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 20 Iss: 8 pp. 919 – 935 Permanent link to this document: http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/02656710310493634 Downloaded on: 27-01-2013References: This document contains references to 26 other documents Citations: This document has been cited by 25 other documents To copy this document: [email  protected] com This document has been downloaded 2679 times since 2005. * Users who downloaded this Article also downloaded: * Jos van Iwaarden, Ton van der Wiele, Leslie Ball, Robert Millen, (2003),†Applying SERVQUAL to Web sites: an exploratory studyà ¢â‚¬ , International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 20 Iss: 8 pp. 919 – 935 http://dx. doi. org/10. 108/02656710310493634 Jos van Iwaarden, Ton van der Wiele, Leslie Ball, Robert Millen, (2003),†Applying SERVQUAL to Web sites: an exploratory study†, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 20 Iss: 8 pp. 919 – 935 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/02656710310493634 Jos van Iwaarden, Ton van der Wiele, Leslie Ball, Robert Millen, (2003),†Applying SERVQUAL to Web sites: an exploratory study†, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 20 Iss: 8 pp. 919 – 935 http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/02656710310493634Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by UCSI EDUCATION SDN BHD For Authors: If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service. Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www. emeraldinsight. com/authors for more information. About Emerald www. emeraldinsight. com With over forty years' experience, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education.In total, Emerald publishes over 275 journals and more than 130 book series, as well as an extensive range of online products and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. *Related content and download information correct at time of download. The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at http://www. emeraldinsight. com/researchregister The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www. emeraldinsight. om/0265-671X. htm NEW RESEARCH Applying SERVQUAL to Web sites: an exploratory study Applying SERVQUAL 919 Jos van Iwaarden and Ton van der Wiele Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and Leslie Ball and Robert Millen Received August 2002 Revised December 2002 Accepted December 2002 Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Keywords Worldwide Web, SERVQUAL, Electronic commerce Abstract In an effort to identify the quality factors perceived to be most important in relation to the use of Web sites, a survey was undertaken. The questionnaire utilized was based on the SERVQUAL instrument that identi? s ? ve quality dimensions in service environments. The results indicate that the quality dimensions found applicable in the service sector are also applicable to Web sites. The items that have been identi? ed as most important in relation to the quality of Web sites are tangibles (the appearance of the Web site, navigation, search options, and structure), reliability (the abi lity to judge the trustworthiness of the offered service and the organization performing the service), responsiveness (the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service), assurance (the ability of the Web site to convey trust and con? ence in the organisation behind it with respect to security and privacy), and empathy (the provision of caring, individualized attention to customers, including user recognition and customization). Introduction In the early 1990s three technologies (communications speed, memory capacity, and computer speed) were rapidly growing in terms of capabilities they had for over 20 years. However, their combined S-curve growths suddenly enabled one of the greatest technology revolutions ever seen – the explosion of the Internet.Originally designed as an information conduit, entrepreneurs soon saw the great power of a selling channel that enabled browsing, selecting, and buying without leaving the comfort of the home. Businesses realized that t hey could interact directly with other businesses over the Internet, as well. Additionally, government agencies caught on and began delivering services online, collecting payments for licenses and taxes, providing information, etc. The history of this explosion is well documented as both computer and Internet use have increased substantially in the past few years (US Department of Commerce, 2002).Since 1997 computer use has grown at a rate of 5. 3 percent on an annualized basis. Internet use has grown at a rate of 20 percent per year since 1998, and in the 13 months prior to the September 2001 survey by the US Department of Commerce, over 26 million more Americans went online. The authors are thankful to all anonymous referees for their valuable comments. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management Vol. 20 No. 8, 2003 pp. 919-935 q MCB UP Limited 0265-671X DOI 10. 1108/02656710310493634 IJQRM 20,8 920While there is a great talk about the â€Å"digital divide†, t he US Department of Commerce reported that 54 percent (or 143 million Americans) have access to the Internet in their homes and that nearly 100 percent of the US population has access through schools and libraries. Thousands of companies were formed to sell goods and services over the Internet during this period creating the â€Å"New Economy†. Subsequently, many of those companies are now gone as witnessed by the huge number of bankruptcies (Baldwin, 2002). Different experts might de? e e-commerce differently, but most agree on one thing: the sector represents a growing piece of the overall commerce pie, and its share is expected to increase steadily – though gradually – over the next ? ve years. Various parties have forecast different results. For example, Forrester reports that online sales in the USA accounted for $51. 3 billion in revenue during 2001, and revenue for 2002 is expected to a total of $72. 1 billion, a 41 percent increase over the previous year (Hirsh, 2002). However, this accounts for only 2 percent of the overall retail spending.It has been predicted that this share will grow by about three-tenths of a percentage point each year through at least 2005, marking a slow but steady climb. As for e-commerce sales, another projection estimates that online revenue will total about $90 billion in 2002, $160-$170 billion in 2004, and $287. 9 billion by 2006 (Hirsh, 2002). The value of the Internet goes beyond adding another selling channel. Researchers at McKinsey and Company report that the retention of customers online is easier than in traditional â€Å"bricks and mortar† companies where the online company spends three to ? ve times less to retain them.Companies that retained customers exhibited traits of reliable basic operational execution. Their sites downloaded quickly; they responded to customer queries quickly; they delivered more than 95 percent of their orders on time; and they made it easy for customers to retu rn or exchange purchases. One company raised its on-time delivery rates from 60 to 90 percent, and cut customer churn in half (Agrawal et al. , 2001). The Internet also can play a pivotal role in enhancing brand relationships and corporate reputations. Nike, Disney, Coke, and Toyota are all well-established brands that drive us to search for and ? d their products. Branding is a critical component of the design of Web sites. It is about building a brand or corporate reputation to create relationships with customers (Chiagouris and Wansley, 2001). â€Å"Branding is rede? ned online,† says Caroline Riby, vice president-media director at Saatchi & Saatchi Rowland. â€Å"We are moving beyond representing a brand to experiencing it† (Chiagouris and Wansley, 2001). The Web site must capture the attention of those people who know nothing or very little about the company, but are interested in its category.It must also build awareness of what the company does within the contex t of the industry in which it is competing. Earlier Web sites were developed by large corporations, which required that they adhere to the corporate logo and color scheme, attach to the corporate databases, and comply with several other corporate requirements. This translated to high cost and signi? cant development time. Others (those created for â€Å"Mom and Pop† operations and early entrepreneurial operations), built over the weekend, did not connect to large databases, and had no standards. While the company was in operation fast, the sites were often unattractive and dif? ult to use. Is it not surprising that the companies that are most successful selling over the Internet are the former and not the later? Certainly, we can ? nd examples of the up-starts that have succeeded, but they have usually adapted to the model of the corporation that requires high standards. Just as in the bricks and mortar world, companies have to offer excellent service on the Web. Web sites wi ll become very important to companies as more products and services will be bought either over the Internet or by making use of the Internet before purchasing in a bricks and mortar store.Therefore, companies need to have Web sites that live up to customers’ expectations. The purpose of our research is to provide empirical evidence on the factors that contribute to the quality of Web sites. Our most important research questions are: . How do customers distinguish a good Web site from a bad one? . What factors determine the quality of a Web site? Customer satisfaction Companies offer quality to satisfy their customers (Dale, 1999). Because a Web site is part of the connection between a company and its customers, it is evident that it should re? ct the quality efforts that are in place throughout the company. Besides this reason there is another reason why a company should provide high quality Web sites to its customers: there is no human contact through Web sites. The interact ion via the Internet between a company and a customer is always through technology. This means the â€Å"moment of truth† between a company and a customer is the Web site. Although companies may try to emulate human behavior with technology, the interaction remains different because some aspects of human interaction cannot be replaced with technology, e. g. ourtesy, friendliness, helpfulness, care, commitment, ?exibility and cleanliness (Cox and Dale, 2001, 2002). The absence of these aspects of human interaction through which quality can be delivered to customers will have to be compensated by better performance on other quality factors or by excellent performance on â€Å"new† speci? c Web quality factors. A key aspect in customer satisfaction is the way a customer can attain satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a company’s service. If a company wants to satisfy its customers the ? rst question it needs to answer is what is it that Applying SERVQUAL 921 IJQRM 20,8 22 satis? es customers and, equally important, what is it that makes customers dissatis? ed with the company and its products and services. Satisfying customers depends on the balance between customers’ expectations and customers’ experiences with the products and services (Zeithaml et al. , 1990). When a company is able to lift a customer’s experience to a level that exceeds that customer’s expectations, then that customer will be satis? ed. Because customers have ever increasing expectations it is necessary for companies continuously to improve their quality and hence customers’ experiences with the company.The issue is what should be improved to keep the customers satis? ed. What customers experience is not just one simple aspect of a company, but a whole range of aspects. Some of these aspects are concerned with the way customers experience the company itself, some are concerned with the way customers experience the physical product and, ? nally, some are concerned with the way customers experience the service the company offers. Comparing customers’ expectations and their perceptions of actual performance can be done by making use of the SERVQUAL scale of Berry, Parasuraman and Zeithaml (Zeithaml et al. 1990). This scale has been developed for the service sector. It has ? ve generic dimensions or factors and are stated as follows: (1) Tangibles. Physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel. (2) Reliability. Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. (3) Responsiveness. Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. (4) Assurance (including competence, courtesy, credibility and security). Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and con? dence. (5) Empathy (including access, communication, understanding the customer).Caring and individualized attention that the ? rm provides its customers. In the SERVQUAL instrument, 22 statements m easure the performance across these ? ve dimensions. For each statement, the expectation and the experience of a customer is determined. There is some criticism on the long-term stability of the results of the SERVQUAL scale (Lam and Woo, 1997) and on the general applicability of the ? ve dimensions (Buttle, 1996; Crosby and LeMay, 1998). Although alternative models have been proposed for the measurement of service quality, e. . SERVPERF (Cronin and Taylor, 1992), the SERVQUAL scale has been widely used by academics and practitioners to measure service quality. Therefore, this model has been used as a point of reference in this paper. SERVQUAL dimensions in relation to e-business Tangibles Examples of the tangibles factor are â€Å"has up-to-date equipment†, â€Å"physical facilities are visually appealing† and â€Å"materials are visually appealing†. These aspects might be even more important in e-business as there is no face-to-face contact between the custome r and an employee.The visual aspects of the equipment (i. e. the Web site) are the only visual contact between a customer and an organization. Therefore, the need to have well functioning and good-looking Web sites is paramount. There are a great number of customers who abandon their shopping carts on the Internet because they get frustrated with the technology, or the design and lay out of the Web site interface (Hager and Elliot, 2001). The visual aspects of Web sites are also judged differently by the people of different age. While young people may be attracted by ? shy graphics, sounds and a high-speed interface, older people do not want blinking texts that are hard to read or animations that distract from the use of the Web site (Houtman, 2002). Although a number of Web sites offer users the opportunity to customise the Web site to their needs, this customization process is mostly aimed at the content of the Web site and not at the graphics, animations and sounds. Reliability S ome of the aspects in the reliability factor have to do with â€Å"doing what is promised† and â€Å"doing it at the promised time†.Although many organizations seem to think that the major reason why customers shop via the Internet is because of the low prices, this does not always need to be the case. Some organizations found out the hard way that there are also a lot of customers shopping via the Internet because of convenience considerations (Riseley and Schehr, 2000). If customers cannot trust an organization to do what they ask, those customers will be dissatis? ed. Priceline, for example, ran into big problems by the end of 2000 because of its focus on the lowest prices. People could buy a plane ticket at a very low price, but because of possible inconvenient ? ing times there was a big risk for customers. This resulted in dissatis? ed customers who were happy to trade off Priceline’s discounts for the convenience of a competitor (Riseley and Schehr, 2000) . Responsiveness One of the aspects in the responsiveness factor is â€Å"gives prompt service†. The amount of time it takes to download a Web page appears to be of great importance to the users of the Internet. Research in 1999 found that fewer than 10 percent of users leave a Web site if page response time is kept below 7 s. However, when it rises above 8 s, 30 percent of users leave.When delays exceed 12 s, a staggering 70 percent of users leave a Web site (Cox and Dale, 2001, 2002). It can be assumed that people expect Web sites to be even more quicker than in 1999 because of the technological advances. Thus, it is very important Applying SERVQUAL 923 IJQRM 20,8 924 for organizations to have a Web site that is quick, but on the other hand users expect Web sites to be visually appealing. As the number and size of animations, pictures and sounds increase to make a Web page more visually appealing, the time it takes to download that Web page will also increase, which is judg ed negatively by users.Hence, there is a trade-off between the looks of a Web site and the speed of that site. Organizations will have to try to ? nd the right balance between good looks and speed. The trade-off between looks and speed is complicated by companies’ demand that their Web sites convey the corporate image (Manning et al. , 1998). The design department of a company wants Web pages to be easily recognisable as belonging to that company. In their view, Web pages have to display company and product logos as well as other graphics that underscore the corporate identity.These graphics add to the overall size of Web pages and thereby increase the download time for Internet users. It is questionable whether users are willing to accept slower pages in return for more logos and graphics that do not improve the functionality of the Web site (although they might improve the visual appeal). Assurance One of the aspects in the assurance factor is â€Å"knowledge to answer que stions†. Customers expect to ? nd everything they want on a Web site. In a bricks and mortar store, people feel comfortable with a limited inventory. On the Internet, people are not satis? ed if they cannot ? nd everything they want.Web shops need to have great depth of inventory and rich and relevant product information (Dayal et al. , 2002). Two other aspects in the assurance factor are â€Å"employees can be trusted† and â€Å"feel safe in your transactions with employees†. First, there is the risk for users to share personal information with an organization they do not know. Research on this topic (Statistical Research Inc. , 2001) shows that at least 50 percent of users are very concerned about: misuse of credit card information given over the Internet; selling or sharing of personal information by Web site owners; and cookies that track customers’ Internet activity.Second, the same research shows that two-thirds of active Web users typically abandon a site that requests personal information and one in ? ve has entered false information to gain access to a Web site. Aspects in the assurance factor that could be very important in e-business are (Daughtrey, 2001): . availability of a formal privacy and con? dentiality policy on a Web site; . secured access to a Web site (that customers are prompted to acknowledge); . general reputation of supplier; . certi? cations or guarantees of assurance; and . reports of experiences of other customers.The ? rst aspect in this list is also acknowledged by the International Organization for Standardisation in Geneva. The Code of Practice for Information Security Management (ISO/IEC 17799:2000) provides a basis for establishing and maintaining the means of handling sensitive data (Daughtrey, 2001). Certi? cations and guarantees of assurance are also important in e-business. More and more organizations are trying to obtain certi? cation by an objective, consensus-based standard, just as they did earlier with quality management standards (Daughtrey, 2001).These organizations are becoming aware of the advantages of such certi? cation in relation to customers’ trust in these organizations. Empathy In the dimension of empathy there are several aspects that are usually not found on a Web site. Because of the fact that there is no human interaction, Web sites normally do not offer personal attention. To achieve this, a number of Web sites have a design that can be personalized by the users of these sites, so people can have their own version of the Web site. This kind of Web site design is aimed at giving users the experience of getting personal attention.The idea is that the more a Web site is tailored to a particular customer’s needs, the more likely that customer will return again and again (The Economist, 2001). The most advanced technologies in this area aim to create a face-to-virtual-face interaction. A friendly looking face of a virtual assistant on your scr een is supposed to make customers feel more comfortable. With the use of arti? cial intelligence, the virtual assistant can suggest products or services that might be of interest to a customer based on previous purchases and on reactions to the questions of the virtual assistant.The latter possibility of asking users of a Web site questions via a virtual assistant will enable companies to tailor their offerings to the wishes of the user to prevent customer dissatisfaction. The only purpose of all these technological gadgets is to add one of the Web’s key missing ingredients: warmth (The Economist, 2001). Other aspects It seems that most of the dimensions and aspects that have been de? ned for general service environments are also important in e-business. Besides the ? ve dimensions as de? ned by Zeithaml et al. (1990), empirical evidence might come up with more speci? c dimensions related to e-business.Some preliminary research has been done in this area (Cox and Dale, 2001, 2002; Fink and Laupase, 2000; Schubert and Dettling, 2001; Wan, 2000), but no de? nitive results have been attained. Hence, more research is needed (Zeithaml, 2002). Research methodology The research was conducted by means of a questionnaire survey. Employment of this approach provides a relatively easy means to study the perceptions and Applying SERVQUAL 925 IJQRM 20,8 926 opinions of a large group of people in a limited time frame and at low costs. The survey was undertaken with the student population at Northeastern University (NEU), Boston, USA.Students were expected to be familiar with e-business and the Internet. Students received an e-mail with a hyperlink to the Web site containing the questionnaire allowing them to respond to the questionnaire electronically and to submit by clicking a button. The purpose of the questionnaire survey was to develop empirical evidence on the quality factors of Web sites that are important to people who are familiar with the Internet and frequ ent Internet users. The survey comprised the following questions: . personal information (gender, age, academic discipline); . respondents’ use of Internet (equipment, frequency of use); . peci? c Web sites that are visited by respondents (a prede? ned list of 20 categories of Web sites); and . aspects of Web quality (a prede? ned list of 50 aspects). The core of the questionnaire consists of the list of aspects of Web quality. For every aspect we ask the respondent to indicate the importance of that aspect and at the same time we ask for their satisfaction with that aspect. The structure of the questions is based on the SERVQUAL scale (Zeithaml et al. , 1990). The aspects have been de? ned according to the categories of the model developed by Cox and Dale (2001, 2002) and are as follows: clarity of purpose; . design; . communication; . reliability; . service and frequently asked questions; . accessibility and speed; . product or service choice; . order con? rmation; . produc t purchase; . user recognition; . extra service; and . frequent buyer incentives. For each of these categories a number of aspects have been de? ned in the questionnaire. The questionnaire has been discussed with experts in the ? eld of quality management and a pilot study has been conducted amongst a small number of students. This lead to an improved questionnaire which has been used for the esearch presented in this paper. Survey results Sample and response rate All students who obtained a university e-mail account at NEU (approximately 6,000) received an e-mail about the study and the questionnaire. Responses were received from 293 students. The response rate for the direct mailings to students was rather low (approximately 5 percent of the number of e-mails sent out), although acceptable for this type of mailing. Applying SERVQUAL 927 Descriptive statistics In Tables I and II, the response sample is described in terms of gender and age, respectively.A comparison of the response sample with the total population at NEU leads to the conclusion that the response group is representative for the total population. The respondents were enrolled across many academic disciplines, and judged by the age of the respondents, most students were at the undergraduate level. Table III shows the respondents’ use of the Internet in terms of the quality of their own equipment. Overall the students are rather satis? ed with their equipment and do not seem to have problems with speed and download time. Table IV summarizes the frequencies of respondents’ Internet visits.They visit the Internet on an average 18 times per week, for about an hour per visit. So, it is clear that students make frequent use of the Internet. Male Female Total 104 188 292 Table I. Number of respondents by gender , 21 years 21-25 years 26-30 years 31-35 years . 35 years Total 192 71 19 4 7 293 Table II. Number of respondents by age PC Connection speed Printing from the Web Downloading from t he Web Notes: On a ? ve-point scale from very dissatis? ed to very satis? ed 3. 83 3. 59 3. 53 3. 57 Table III. Satisfaction of respondents with the equipment they use IJQRM 20,8 928 Table IV. The use of the WebIt is interesting to note the types of Web sites that are used most often by our respondents (Table V). The types of Web sites that are used most often are: search engines, university sites, daily news and entertainment sites. Web sites that are used less frequently are: e-shops and chat rooms. Sites with stock exchange information are not visited very often either. In Table VI (top ten) and Table VII (bottom ten) the importance (expectations) and the satisfaction (experiences) are summarized on prede? ned aspects related to the quality of Web sites. The top ten aspects seem to relate to reliability issues in pure e-commerce.Customers who buy a product on the Internet want Web sites and the organizations behind them to be trustworthy. E-commerce Web sites need to be fast, sim ple and always available. Customers want a clear overview and con? rmation of what they bought and what they have to pay for. Easy to ? nd desired Web site 3. 80 Easy to use Web page links 3. 92 Easy to ? nd relevant information 3. 38 Time spent on one site , 12 min Time on the Web per Internet visit , 60 min Number of Internet visits per week , 19 visits Note: If not indicated otherwise, on a ? ve-point scale from very dif? cult to very easy Mean Table V. Web sites ranked by requency of visits Search engines Daily newspapers Entertainment Universities Electronic libraries Personal Web sites Information portals Games Travel Sports Banking Company information E-shops Book stores Music stores Movie stores Second-hand products Stock exchange information Who is where Chat rooms Note: On a ? ve-point scale from never to once a day or more 4. 64 3. 63 3. 47 3. 38 3. 02 2. 99 2. 92 2. 82 2. 72 2. 62 2. 60 2. 58 2. 57 2. 41 2. 39 2. 27 2. 16 2. 02 1. 84 1. 76 Top ten with highest scores on importance Finding your way on the Web site is easya Access is fasta A complete overview of the order is presented before ? al purchase decisiona Tax and/or other charges are clearly detaileda The registration process is simplea Access to anticipated delivery times is available at all timesa All relevant order con? rmation details sent by e-maila Order cancellation and returns details are con? rmed within three daysa Order-tracking details are available until deliverya There are well programmed search optionsa Importance Satisfaction mean mean Delta S-I 4. 61 4. 60 3. 44 3. 31 2 1. 17 2 1. 29 4. 55 4. 50 4. 50 4. 46 4. 46 3. 75 3. 47 3. 36 3. 18 3. 84 2 0. 80 2 1. 03 2 1. 14 2 1. 28 2 0. 62 4. 43 4. 40 4. 39 3. 24 3. 30 3. 08 1. 19 2 1. 10 2 1. 31 Notes: a Mean values on ? ve-point scales; difference between importance and satisfaction signi? cant at 0. 01 level based on a t-test (two-tailed) Bottom ten with lowest scores on importance Applying SERVQUAL Importance Satisfaction mean mean Searches on related sites are provideda 3. 81 The privacy policy is accessiblea 3. 79 The security policy is accessiblea 3. 76 The Web site contains company detailsa 3. 70 3. 68 Scrolling through pages and text is kept to a minimuma Links are provided to pages on related products and servicesa 3. 67 Web site animations are meaningfula 3. 52A customer platform is provided for exchange of ideas 3. 36 The user is invited into a frequent buyer programa 3. 31 Brand image is important 3. 22 Notes: a Mean values on ? ve-point scales; Difference between importance signi? cant at 0. 01 level based on a t-test (two-tailed) 3. 40 3. 52 3. 51 3. 32 3. 29 929 Table VI. Importance of and satisfaction with aspects of Web quality Delta S-I 2 0. 41 2 0. 27 2 0. 25 2 0. 38 2 0. 39 3. 40 2 0. 27 3. 21 2 0. 31 3. 29 2 0. 07 3. 08 2 0. 23 3. 29 0. 07 and satisfaction The bottom ten aspects seem to relate to extra service (e. g. customization of Web sites) and information (e. g. ecurity policy and c ompany details) that is provided to the customer. Apparently respondents do not ? nd these extras very important in their use of the Internet. Tables VI and VII also show the gaps between experiences and expectations (satisfaction minus importance). It can be concluded that the gap is widest for the aspects that respondents perceive as most important. The aspect with the largest gap is â€Å"access is fast† (satisfaction score 3. 31 and importance score 4. 60). In the top ten aspects there are no aspects with a positive delta, meaning Table VII. Importance of and satisfaction with aspects of Web qualityIJQRM 20,8 930 that for every aspect the experience is less than expected. In the bottom ten aspects there is just one aspect with a (very small) positive delta â€Å"brand image†. Factor analyses (varimax, principal components) on the importance data (KMO value ? 0. 91) and satisfaction data (KMO value ? 0. 93) based on Eigenvalues greater than one indicated 12 factor s olutions. These factors cluster the aspects more or less according to the structure of the questionnaire. Most of these factors also become too speci? c and do not disclose the underlying structure of customers’ perceptions of the quality of Web sites.The Scree plots indicated solutions with fewer factors, possibly around ? ve factors. A comparison of the results of factor analyses with varying numbers of factors led to the conclusion that ? ve-factor solutions ? t the data best. These ? ve-factor solutions were used to ? nd evidence for the existence of the ? ve dimensions according to the SERVQUAL scale (Zeithaml et al. , 1990). The results of these ? ve-factor solutions are summarized in Table VIII. In Table VIII we only include the aspects with factor loadings greater than 0. 5. The aspects are ranked under each factor according to their factor loadings.It can be seen from the table that the two ? ve-factor solutions (importance and satisfaction) come to the same conclusi ons regarding the clustering of the aspects. There are some minor differences in the clustering of the aspects between the two factor solutions; however, these differences are related to the aspects with low factor loadings. It can be concluded that the factor analyses on both the importance of the Web quality aspects and the satisfaction with the Web quality aspects are compatible with the ? ve factors of the SERVQUAL scale. Correlation between Web sites and Web quality factors The importance of any of the ? e factors of the SERVQUAL scale might differ per type of Web site, just like it differs per service sector in the bricks and mortar world. Therefore, a correlation between the ? ve SERVQUAL factors and the different types of Web sites is useful to determine these differences. In order to categorize the fairly large number of different types of Web sites, a factor analysis (varimax, principal components, KMO value ? 0. 83) on the data on the use of Web sites (Table V) is conduct ed. The results of this factor analysis indicate that there are clearly ? ve groups of sites that form the underlying usage pattern.These are: (1) e-shops for books, music, movies, etc. (Cronbach’s alpha ? 0. 75); (2) university and study information (Cronbach’s alpha ? 0. 64); (3) games, entertainment, and sport (Cronbach’s alpha ? 0. 66); (4) company information, stock information, and banks (Cronbach’s alpha ? 0. 69); and (5) general information on daily news, travel, libraries, and search engines (Cronbach’s alpha ? 0. 58). Importance Satisfaction Factor 1 (Reliability) A complete overview of the order is presented before ? nal purchase decision Tax and/or other charges are clearly detailed Different payment options are stated clearlyAll relevant order con? rmation details are sent by e-mail within 24 hours Access to anticipated delivery times is available at all times Terms and conditions of sales are accessible Order-tracking details are avai lable until delivery Order cancellation and returns details are con? rmed within three days Full details of product or service pricing are available The registration process is simple Full product or service characteristics are available Registration process details are retained The Web site offers free shipping and handling within a set of rules Access is fast The user can make a purchase without Web ite registration Factor 1 (Reliability) All relevant order con? rmation details are sent by e-mail within 24 hours A complete overview of the order is presented before ? nal purchase decision Terms and conditions of sales are accessible Order-tracking details are available until delivery Different payment options are stated clearly Tax and/or other charges are clearly detailed Access to anticipated delivery times is available at all times Order cancellation and returns details are con? rmed within three days The home page features options for new and registered users Registration proce ss details are retainedFactor 2 (Tangibles) Finding your way on the Web site is easy Information is found with a minimum of clicks Navigation is consistent and standardized There are well programmed search options Instructions are directly available Opening of new screens is kept to a minimum Applying SERVQUAL Factor 2 (Tangibles) Finding your way on the Web site is easy Information is found with a minimum of clicks Navigation is consistent and standardized The number and type of links are meaningful The purpose is clear Scrolling through pages and text is kept to a minimum Instructions are directly available It is easy to print from the WebFactor 3 (Empathy) Factor 3 (Empathy) Links are provided to pages on related products Links are provided to pages on related products and services and services A customer platform is provided for the On travel sites a ? ight/hotel search is provided exchange of ideas A standard navigation bar, home button and On travel sites the user can customiz e seat and back/forward button are available on every meal preferences and the information is page retained (continued ) 931 Table VIII. Con? rmative factor analysis (? ve-factor solution) IJQRM 20,8 Importance Satisfaction It is easy to print from the WebOn travel sites a ? ight/hotel search is provided Web sites that focus on brand awareness have a store locator The user is invited into a frequent buyer program Factor 4 (Assurance) The security policy is accessible The privacy policy is accessible External validation of trustworthiness is important The Web site contains company details Brand image is important Page availability information is given on entry The user is invited into a frequent buyer program A customer platform is provided for exchange of ideas Factor 4 (Assurance) The privacy policy is accessible The security policy is accessibleThe Web site contains company details External validation of trustworthiness is important 932 Factor 5 (Responsiveness) The frequently ask ed questions and answers contain links that take the user to the relevant page(s) Information is provided to frequently asked questions and answers Queries or complaints are resolved within 24 hours User feedback is sought to measure customer satisfaction An e-mail address for queries and complaints is provided Table VIII. Factor 5 (Responsiveness) User feedback is sought to measure customer satisfaction Queries or complaints are resolved within 24 hoursThe frequently asked questions and answers contain links that take the user to the relevant page(s) Access is fast Opening of new screens is kept to a minimum Graphics and animation do not detract from use Full details of product or service pricing are available Notes: Principal component analysis. Varimax with Kaiser normalization. Rotation converged in nine iterations (importance) and ten iterations (satisfaction). Factor loadings . 0. 5, ranking based on factor loadings from high to low Table IX shows the correlation matrix betwee n the frequency of use of types of Web sites and the importance of the Web quality factors.Some results are as follows: . All ? ve quality dimensions are most strongly correlated with e-shops, indicating that frequent users of e-shops tend to have higher quality expectations. . An increase in the frequency of use of the types of Web sites is in all cases most strongly correlated with either empathy (E-shops), assurance (company sites and search engines) or responsiveness (study related sites, Reliability Coef. Sign E-shops (books, music, movies etc. ) Study-related sites Games and sports sites Company and banking sites Search engines, daily news, travel Tangibles Coef. Sign EmpathyCoef. Sign Assurance Coef. Sign Responsiveness Coef. Sign 0. 220 ** 0. 174 ** 0. 239 ** 0. 232 ** 0. 233 ** 0. 171 ** 0. 167 ** 0. 183 ** 0. 156 ** 0. 202 ** 0. 114 * 0. 124 * 0. 168 ** 0. 112 n. s. 0. 171 ** 0. 144 ** 0. 136 * 0. 151 ** 0. 166 ** 0. 144 ** 0. 122 * 0. 115 * 0. 115 * 0. 123 * 0. 115 * Note s: * Correlation is signi? cant at the 0. 05 level (two-tailed); ** Correlation is signi? cant at the 0. 01 level (two-tailed); n. s. ? no signi? cant correlation . Applying SERVQUAL and games and sports). More frequent users of the Internet tend to ? nd reliability and tangibles less important.All correlation coef? cients are positive, indicating that for all types of Web sites more usage leads to higher importance of all quality dimensions. The experienced user seems to have higher expectations of the quality of Web sites. Conclusion The results of this research can be summarised in the following way. Of a prede? ned list of Web quality aspects these aspects are considered to be the most important: access is fast; ? nding your way on the Web site is easy; a complete overview of the order is presented before ? nal purchase decision; and the registration process is simple. Of the ? e factors that can be found by means of factor analyses (reliability, tangibles, empathy, assurance an d responsiveness) various aspects related to the factors reliability and tangibles are included in the top ten important aspects. Various aspects related to the factors empathy and assurance are included in the bottom ten aspects ranked according to their perceived importance. Both the importance of the Web quality aspects and the satisfaction with the Web quality aspects are compatible with ? ve-factor analyses that support the existence of the ? ve factors of the SERVQUAL scale of Zeithaml et al. (1990).The importance of any of the ? ve factors of the SERVQUAL scale differs per type of Web site, just like it differs per service industry in the bricks and mortar world. So far, it can be concluded that the quality dimensions developed by Zeithaml et al. (1990) for service environments are equally useful in e-business. 933 Table IX. Correlation between the frequency of use of types of Web sites and the importance of the Web quality factors IJQRM 20,8 934 Further analysis of the data is needed. While this research project yields a number of very interesting results, we believe that there are a number of things that should be done to con? m our results as well as to expand our hypotheses. First, with the number of Internet users now over one billion, our sample is relatively small. Therefore, research with larger samples that pose the same or similar questions would be appropriate. Second, Internet users come from all over the globe. One has to suspect that there are differences between a sample taken from students of the USA and what might be found among students elsewhere. Possible, language, culture, religion, and a host of other factors may be important to a user’s impression of the quality of a Web site.Finally, quality is an area of critical importance for commercial companies. Businesses need to understand what attracts people to their Web sites, what keeps them there, and what keeps them coming back. They need to understand the differences between the casual buyer versus the user who visits their Web sites on a daily basis. Web sites for companies like Dell, Cisco, Orbitz, and Covisint do millions of dollars of business each day. They need to understand the factors that keep these businesses growing better by understanding what encourages buying and what brings them back to the Web sites.Likewise, their competitors need to understand these factors even more to compete in this highly competitive marketplace. Due to the signi? cance of this to business, we expect that this type of research will be ongoing for many years to come. The results of that research will be easier to use Web sites that are more customer focused and evolving as the user evolves. A Chinese proverb says, â€Å"May you live in interesting times†. We are certainly living in interesting times. References Agrawal, V. , Arjona, L. and Lemmens, R. 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(1998), â€Å"Empirical determination of shipper requirements for motor carrier services: SERVQUAL, direct ques tioning, and policy-capturing methods†, Journal of Business Logistics, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 139-53. Dale, B. G. (1999), Managing Quality, 3rd ed. , Blackwell Publishers, Oxford. Daughtrey, T. (2001), â€Å"Costs of trust for E-business: risk analysis can help e-businesses decide where investments in quality and security should be directed†, Quality Progress, No. 0, pp. 38-43. Dayal, S. , French, T. D. and Sankaran, V. (2002), â€Å"The e-tailer’s secret weapon†, The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 2. (The) Economist (2001), â€Å"Talking heads†, The Economist, 24 March. Fink, D. and Laupase, R. (2000), â€Å"Perceptions of Web site design characteristics: a Malaysian/Australian comparison†, Internet Research, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 44-55. Hager, L. and Elliot, B. (2001), â€Å"Web quality tool can raise ROI on contact center investments†, Gartner First Take, 15 November. Hirsh, L. (2002), â€Å"How big is e-commerce? †, E-commerce Times, avai lable at: www. ecommercetimes. om/perl/story/18403. html (accessed 27 June). Houtman, J. (2002), â€Å"Webpagina’s instelbaar voor oudere surfers†, Emerce, 25 March. Lam, S. S. K. and Woo, K. S. (1997), â€Å"Measuring service quality: a test-retest reliability investigation of SERVQUAL†, Journal of the Market Research Society, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 381-96. Manning, H. , McCarthy, J. C. and Souza, R. K. (1998), Forrester Report: Why Most Web Sites Fail, Forrester, Washington, DC. Riseley, M. and Schehr, D. (2000), â€Å"Priceline’s problems result from poor execution in a niche market†, Gartner First Take, 8 November. Schubert, P. nd Dettling, W. (2001), â€Å"Web site evaluation: do Web applications meet user expectations? Music, consumer goods and e-banking on the test bed†, Proceedings of the 14th Bled Electronic Commerce Conference, Bled, pp. 383-403. Statistical Research Inc. (2001), â€Å"Even veteran Web users remain skittish about site s that get personal†, 7 June, available at: www. statisticalresearch. com/press/pr060701. htm (accessed 15 March 2002). US Department of Commerce (2002), A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet, US Department of Commerce, Washington, DC, February.Wan, H. A. (2000), â€Å"Opportunities to enhance a commercial Web site†, Information and Management, Vol. 38 No. 1, pp. 15-21. Zeithaml, V. A. (2002), â€Å"Guru view†, Managing Service Quality, special issue on service excellence, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 135-8. Zeithaml, V. A. , Parasuraman, A. and Berry, L. L. (1990), Delivering Quality Service; Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations, The Free Press, New York, NY. Further reading Cutler, M. and Strene, J. (2000), E-metric: Business Metric for the New Economy, NetGenesis Corp. Applying SERVQUAL 935