Massage Therapy

Annotated Bibliography and Critique: Massage Therapy September 19th, 2012 Introduction The alternative therapy I chose to research was Massage therapy. The Oxford Dictionary of Psychology defines massage therapy as â€Å"manual manipulation of soft tissue to promote physical and mental health and well-being. Forms of massage therapy can be traced back to ancient Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Hindu, and Japanese civilizations† (â€Å"massage therapy†, 2008).I chose to do this topic for my annotated bibliography because I am interested in learning more about the benefits of massage and to understand ways of healing pain and discomfort through touch and manual manipulation. I believe that massage therapy is not only helpful in the relief of pain and discomfort but also helps in the emotional maintenance of romantic relationships. Article One Ho, Y. , Lee, R. , Chow, C. , & Pang, M. (2010). Impact of massage therapy on motor outcomes in very low-birthweight infants: Rand omized controlled pilot study.Pediatricsinternational, 52, 378-385. The purpose of this randomized trial was to â€Å"investigate the efficacy of massage therapy on stable preterm VLBW infants in promoting motor development, weight gain, and earlier discharge from the hospital† (Ho et al. , 2010, p. 378). Ho et al. suggest that â€Å"it is generally accepted that infants at 32 weeks gestational age and beyond may benefit from massage therapy† (Ho et al. , 2010, p. 378). This was a randomized controlled intervention pilot trial that studied infants whose gestational age was between 25 and 34 weeks with VLBW.Two types of massage interventions were performed on separate groups of infants for 15 minutes in duration. One intervention being 5 minutes of massage therapy with tactile stimulation in the first and third phases and physical activity phase in the second phase and the other therapy (sham treatment) consisted of gentle still touch producing no indentation in the ski n. Each treatment was done an hour after feedings. Daily caloric intake was recorded as well as bodyweight before intervention, at 36 weeks PCA, and after intervention.The results of this study were shown to be that out of the 24 infants that were involved, the â€Å"infants with poor initial motor performance had significantly more improvement in motor outcomes and shorter length of hospital stay following massage therapy than sham treatment† (Ho et al. , 2010, p. 381) Article One Critique Strengths of this article were the thorough explanation of the therapies done with the infants. This allows for easy replication of the study should anyone try and implement these types of massage therapies in hospital NICU’s.This article also outlined implications for future research suggesting that a large sample size would be beneficial for another study to have more accurate results. The author’s use and interpretation of the evidence lead to the same conclusion as was gi ven in the conclusion. Appropriate methods to gather evidence was used and measurements were done at appropriate growth stages. I believe that the results of this study were congruent with what the conclusion stated in the end.Shortcomings of this article are stated within the article saying that â€Å"the effect of massage on preterm infants’ motor developmental outcomes thus remains uncertain, and a study with a more rigorous study design is warranted† (Ho et al. , 2010, p. 378). Excluding certain infants from the study I believe was also a short coming in this article. They limited infants that had maternal drug addictions, congenital abnormalities, and genetic disorders. This was a limitation to this study because it didn’t allow for results to show if massage therapy could benefit these types of conditions in newborns.Limiting infants such as ones with congenital abnormalities may have allowed the results to show better growth in the overall group. For futu re studies infants with conditions such as congenital abnormalities or maternal drug addiction could be included as a third subgroup for testing of massage therapy to see if the benefits of this alternative therapy aids in their growth and development. Article Two Munk, N. , Kruger, T. , & Zanjani, F. (2011). Massage therapy usage and reported health in older adults.The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, 17(7), 609- 616. A randomized study was done to examine the impact of massage therapy in older adults with persistent pain compared to persistent pain clients who have not sought out the use of alternative therapies such as massage therapy. This article suggests that â€Å"high rates of persistent and acute pain have been reported by users of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) including recipients of massage therapy (MT), with pain being the primary reason some adults utilize CAM treatments† (Munk et al. 2011, p. 609). Participants of this study were 60 – 92years from Lexington, Kentucky either from 500 randomly selected Feyette County voters or from surveys given out at massage therapy clinics. Surveys and questions were dispersed to each participant and answers were recorded. The results of this study were â€Å"mean annual income and years of education were significantly higher for those who utilized MT in the past year compared to those who did not indicate MT usage in the past year† (Munk et al. , 2011, p. 611).Furthermore, â€Å"participants who utilized MT in the past year had significantly higher incomes, more years of education, and greater cumulative CAM usage than those who did not report massage usage† (Munk et al. , 2011, p. 612). Article Two Critique The strengths of this article were that it suggested future studies to look into things such as policy change that would help with older adults being able to afford massage therapy or be covered under their benefits. Another strength of this artic le was that it lists its limitations, allowing future studies to build off of the limitations they had and continue with the study.Shortcomings of this article were that it didn’t talk much about the positives that older adults experience from massage therapy. I would have found it more beneficial to understand how older adults benefited from massage therapy in regards to their persistent pain. Another shortcoming of this article, as stated on page 609, is that â€Å"due to the limited existence of evidence-based studies, the benefits of MT are not well understood for older adults, especially in regards to pain† (Munk et al. , 2011, p. 609).As well, a wider variety of patients could be used to see how different types of people or conditions could benefit from massage therapy. This article was limited to only the Kentucky population rather than a wider variety of people. With this study being centered around a survey and data analysis I feel that surveys could have been sent out worldwide to get a better understanding of massage therapy and its benefits on a wide variety of conditions. More shortcomings were that there was no real measure of pain or how long it lasted for in the participants.This makes me wonder about the authors’ conclusion of massage therapy being â€Å"associated with self-report of less limitation due to physical or emotional issues† (Munk et al. , 2011, p. 614). The last short coming of this article was that there was no actual controlled massage therapy taking place, rather it was just assumed through self reports that massage therapy aided in the management of persistent pain. Article Three Sefton, J. , Yarar, C. , Berry, J. , & Pascoe, D. (2010). Therapeutic massage of the neck and shoulders produces changes in peripheral blood flow when assessed with dynamic infrared thermography.The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, 16(7), 723-732. The objective of this repeated-measures crossover experimen tal design study was to â€Å"determine the effect of therapeutic massage on peripheral blood flow (Yarar et al. , 2010, p. 723). It is suggested that â€Å"MT may improve circulation to damaged or painful tissues, and thereby improve the delivery of metabolic fuels and gas in addition to accelerated waste removal†( Yarar et al. , 2010, p. 724). â€Å"Thus, massage treatment may improve tissue function and potentiate tissue repair by removing barriers to healing processes† (Yarar et al. 2010, p. 724). 17 volunteers were chosen for this study. â€Å"Using a blinded, randomized crossover design, each subject completed the control (C), light touch (LT) and massage (MT) conditions on 3 separate days, at least 1 week apart† (Yarar et al. , 2010, p. 724). The participants were then scanned by dynamic infrared thermography (DIRT) and anterior, posterior and lateral thermal images were taken. â€Å"The key finding of this investigation was that the MT condition produc ed significantly higher skin temperatures when compared to the control condition in five zones† (Yarar et al. , 2010, p. 27). â€Å"Importantly, significant changes were found in zones 9 and 13, areas adjacent to the massaged areas that did not receive massage treatment† (Yarar et al. , 2010, p. 727-728). â€Å"These results suggest that a 20-minute MT protocol can increase skin temperature and peripheral blood perfusion to both the areas receiving massage treatment as well as areas adjacent to the treatment† (Yarar et al. , 2010, p. 728). â€Å"The second key finding in this investigation was that the LT condition did not differ significantly from the C condition† (Yarar et al. , 2010, p. 728). Article Three CritiqueThe strengths and shortcomings of this article were that it was, to me, very difficult to read with the abbreviations throughout. There was only one method used for measuring the temperature of the skin following massage treatment after a few different methods were mentioned in the beginning. The strengths were that it outlined the changes in every zone after treatment, making it clear what areas benefited from treatment. Much time was taken into the discussion part to better understand the results that came of this study. The graphs on pages 729 and 730 are a great way of showing readers the different affects each treatment had on the zones.The use of DIRT to measure the surface temperature without touching the skin was beneficial to this study because it does not require direct touch to the skin. This allows for accurate results because contact with the skin could possibly increase temperature readings. However, I think further study into other methods of taking temperature could have been done to have more options and a wider variety of results. Different variety of massage therapies, such as relaxation massage versus deep tissue massage, could bring about different results as well. Perhaps with deep tissue massage ar terial blood flow would be encouraged throughout the body.The final shortcoming of this article I thought to be the small sample size of 17 participants. However, results were rather accurate due to each participant experiencing each of the 3 treatment types. Application to health care I believe these articles are all applicable to health care because each one is related to a type of condition or illness that could benefit from massage therapy. Low birth weight infants are born every day and finding an alternative therapy to helping with growth and development would help in reducing medical costs and helps in shortening hospital stays for the families affected.Aging adults are often affected by persistent pain from ware on their bones and joints. As an alternative of using harsh prescription medications, massage therapy would help with medical costs as well as lessen the complications and undesirable side effects that come with taking pills all the time. And lastly, massage therapy being used to help with peripheral blood flow to areas that may have little to no circulation can help with lessoning the chance of DVTs, decrease medical costs and improve healing time. ConclusionIn conclusion, massage therapy is effective in helping low birth weight babies with gaining weight and having shorter hospital stays as well as improvement in management of persistent pain and increase in peripheral blood flow. More studies could be done in regards to other positive effects that massage therapy has such as, mental and emotional health and well being. The articles reviewed in this annotated bibliography showed that very low-birth weight infants can benefit from massage in regards to promoting motor development and weight gain.Massage therapy in older adults experiencing persistent pain, according to self reported findings, improves limitation due to physical or emotional issues. And therapeutic massage helps with increased surface temperature aiding in peripheral blood flow . References Ho, Y. , Lee, R. , Chow, C. , & Pang, M. (2010). Impact of massage therapy on motor outcomes in very low-birthweight infants: Randomized controlled pilot study. Pediatrics international, 52, 378-385. Massage therapy. (2008). In A. Colman (Ed. ), A Dictionary of Psychology (3rd ed. ). Retrieved from http://library. troyal. ca:2139/view/10. 1093/acref/9780199534067. 001. 0001/acref- 9780199534067-e-9168? rskey=9C7gUq&result=1&q=massage%20therapy Munk, N. , Kruger, T. , & Zanjani, F. (2011). Massage therapy usage and reported health in older adults. The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, 17(7), 609-616. Sefton, J. , Yarar, C. , Berry, J. , & Pascoe, D. (2010). Therapeutic massage of the neck and shoulders produces changes in peripheral blood flow when assessed with dynamic infrared thermography. The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, 16(7), 723-732.

Brand Communication

Journal of Consumer Marketing Emerald Article: Brand communities for mainstream brands: the example of the Yamaha R1 brand community Reto Felix Article information: To cite this document: Reto Felix, (2012),†Brand communities for mainstream brands: the example of the Yamaha R1 brand community†, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 29 Iss: 3 pp. 225 – 232 Permanent link to this document: http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/07363761211221756 Downloaded on: 08-10-2012 References: This document contains references to 47 other documents To copy this document: [email  protected] comAccess to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by Dublin City University 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. Brand communities for mainstream brands: the example of the Yamaha R1 brand community Reto Felix ? Department of Business Administration, University of Monterrey, San Pedro Garza Garc? , Mexico Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this study is to understand consumers’ product use, practices, identity, and brand meanings in the co ntext of a brand community dedicated to a mainstream Japanese motorcycle brand. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research approach was used in the form of netnography (i. e. ethnography adapted to the study of online communities). Findings – On the product level, consumers experience multiple con? icts and negotiations of meaning related to the use of the product. These ? dings are reproduced on the brand level, where members of the brand community present a more differentiated look on the brand, accompanied by lower levels of admiration and identi? cation with the brand, as in previous reports of brand communities for brands such as Apple, Jeep, or Harley-Davidson. The results suggest that consumers for mainstream brands may be more prone to multi-brand loyalty instead of single-brand loyalty. Practical implications – Marketers should monitor motivations, attitudes, and decision-making processes on both the product and the brand level.Further, non-co mpany-run online communities such as the Yamaha R1 forum bear the risk of community members transmitting brand information in a way not desired by the company. Thus, marketers should consider sponsoring an entire discussion website, a forum, or part of a forum. Originality/value – Whereas previous studies on brand communities have concentrated predominantly on highly admired and differentiated brands, such as Apple or Harley-Davidson, this study investigates consumer practices, identities, and negotiations of meaning on both the product and brand level for a less differentiated mainstream brand.Keywords Brand community, Brand loyalty, Netnography, Identity, Consumer behaviour, Brand management Paper type Research paper An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article. Introduction to brand communities and literature review Community-based brand relationships in marketing literature have been discussed commonly with a focus on bra nd communities. A brand community is a â€Å"specialized, nongeographically bound community, based on a structured set ? f social relationships among admirers of a brand† (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001, p. 412). Brand communities have been found to be crucial in order to understand brand loyalty (Fournier and Lee, 2009; McAlexander et al. , 2002, 2003). They are based on a shared interest in the brand (Algesheimer et al. , 2005) and, more speci? cally, on the three characteristics of consciousness of kind, shared rituals and traditions, and a ? sense or moral responsibility (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001). As a positive outcome of brand communities, consumers may engage in cocreation (Schau et al. 2009), and religious-like relationships between consumers and brands may evolve, as documented in the case of the Apple Newton brand ? ? community (Muniz and Schau, 2005; Schau and Muniz, 2006). The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www. emeraldin sight. com/0736-3761. htm Journal of Consumer Marketing 29/3 (2012) 225– 232 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0736-3761] [DOI 10. 1108/07363761211221756] Because of their geographical independence, brand communities can exist in the form of local clubs or interest groups (Algesheimer et al. 2005; Schouten and McAlexander, 1995), entirely on the Internet (Kozinets, ? 1997; Muniz and Schau, 2005), or in combined form (Kozinets, 2001). Further, brand communities have emerged for virtually any product, such as cars (Algesheimer et al. , 2005; Leigh et al. , 2006; Luedicke et al. , 2010; McAlexander ? et al. , 2002; Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001; Schouten et al. , 2007), motorbikes (Schouten and McAlexander, 1995), computers (Belk and Tumbat, 2005), groceries (Cova and Pace, 2006), or movies and television series (Brown et al. , 2003; Kozinets, 2001).The common denominator of the brands patronized in brand communities is a clear and unique positioning in combination with consumers who strongly identify with the brand. Consumers de? ne themselves by the brands they consume as well as the brands they do not consume, and brands are clearly classi? ed into â€Å"our brands† ? and â€Å"other brands† by the community (Muniz and Hamer, 2001). In other words, members of a particular brand community are not only supposed to be more loyal to the own brand, but also substantially less loyal to competing brands.This phenomenon has been described as oppositional brand ? loyalty by Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) and may lead to enhanced intergroup stereotyping, trash talk targeted at members outside the community, and emotional pleasures from news about a rival’s failure (Hickman and Ward, 2007). In extreme cases, oppositional brand loyalty can turn into active consumer resistance or anti-brand communities (Hollenbeck and Zinkhan, 2006; Luedicke et al. , 2010). However, brand communities are not free of oppositional forces and negotiations of meaning coming from inside.Rather, brand communities may embrace consumers who are 225 Brand communities for mainstream brands Reto Felix Journal of Consumer Marketing Volume 29  · Number 3  · 2012  · 225 –232 critical with the brand or the product in general, and it would thus be overly optimistic to expect equally high levels of loyalty from all visitors of a brand community. For example, Kozinets (1999) classi? es members of virtual communities according to the identi? cation with the consumption activity (or brand) and the intensity of the social relationships with other members of the community.Whereas insiders show both high levels of brand identi? cation and social orientation towards the community, other members may have lower levels of brand identi? cation (minglers), lower levels of social relationships with the community (devotees), or both (tourists). Especially consumers who are simultaneously members in competing brand communities in the same product ca tegory may have high levels of participation in the communities, but without showing high levels of brand loyalty or admiration for the brands (Thompson and Sinha, 2008).In an application of these segmentation approaches to a sample of videogame players (Settlers of Catan) and a Swatch brand community, Ouwersloot and Odekerken-Schroder ? (2008) ? nd one segment of community members who are highly interested in the product, but not in the brand (36 and 7 percent, respectively) and a second segment including consumers who are neither interested in the product, the brand, or social relationships, yet still prefer to remain in the community (15 and 7 percent, respectively).Thus, it can be argued that consumer responses, such as satisfaction or loyalty, operate not only on the brand, but also on the product level (Torres-Moraga et al. , 2008). In the following analysis of an online brand community for a Japanese mainstream motorcycle brand, it is shown how consumers negotiate product and brand meanings, and how identity construction and brand attitudes are affected. The analysis is divided into a ? rst part on issues related to the activity and practices of riding a sports bike and the identity of sports bike consumers in general, and a second part on brand attitudes and how brands mediate identity construction. as chosen as the primary data source. Yamaha is one of four mainstream Japanese motorcycle brands with worldwide sales of US$12. 5 billion in 2009 (Yamaha Motor Co. , 2009). As a comparison, Harley Davidson’s same year consolidated sales from motorcycles and related products were US$4. 3 billion (Harley-Davidson, 2009). The Yamaha R1 forum is primarily dedicated to Yamaha’s top-of-the-range sport bike, the Yamaha R1, but there are also members subscribed to the forum who either have motorbikes from different brands, such as Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, or Ducati, or who currently do not have a motorbike.As of June 14, 2010, the R1 forum had 107,24 9 subscribed members and more than four million postings in approximately 265,000 threads. The threads in the forum are organized into ? ve different sections: 1 Community 2 R1-related discussion 3 Technique, racing, and stunt discussion 4 Marketplace/classi? ed. 5 Misc. section. After starting reading threads in the Community section, it was possible to identify preliminary themes and issues by further browsing through the postings. At a very early stage of the research, evidence was found for more complex and ambiguous brand relationships than in previous studies on brand communities.Following a purposive sampling approach (Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Wallendorf and Belk, 1989), reading and downloading posts were continued as long as analysis of the postings generated new insights and did not lead to redundancy (Belk et al. , 1988). At a later stage of the study, the forum’s search engine was used to immerse more systematically into the data. Over the period between August 2006 and June 2010, around 10,000 postings were read, of which approximately 300 were downloaded. Organization, analysis, and ethical procedures In a ? st step, downloaded postings were pre-classi? ed into different categories and reoccurrences were coded by assigning one or several codes to the statements in the postings. Using an iterative approach, jumping back and forth between coded and uncoded statements facilitated the interpretation of the data. Codes were then condensed into more meaningful constructs and subsequently into interpretive themes in order to obtain relevant layers of meaning and richly textured interpretations (Arnould and Wallendorf, 1994).This procedure allowed a grounded, hermeneutic interpretation to emerge from the data that did not strive for representativeness, but rather for analytic depth and relevance. In order to impede the tracking of forum members’ identities, user names were changed to generic member names, such as â€Å"forum member 1. † Deviating from Kozinets’ (2002) recommendations, permissions from community members to use direct quotations were not requested. The reason for this decision was twofold: First, in an initial attempt to contact community members, only one response out of ten emails sent was obtained.If only those postings had been used that responses had been received for, the pool of usable data had been reduced signi? cantly. And second, Langer and Beckman’s (2005) reasoning was considered in that postings in an internet community forum are intentionally public postings, comparable to readers’ letters in a newspaper, and that it would be highly unusual to seek 226 Method Netnography was used to explore brand relationships and identity construction for an online community of a mainstream Japanese motorcycle brand. Netnography has been de? ed as â€Å"ethnography adapted to the study of online communities† (Kozinets, 2002, p. 61) and has been used in consumption context s such as the X-Files (Kozinets, 1997), Star Trek (Kozinets, 2001, 2006), wedding messages (Nelson and Otnes, 2005), cars (Brown et al. , 2003), and consumer gift systems (Giesler, 2006). Similar to traditional ethnography, netnography is open-ended, interpretative, ? exible, metaphorical, and grounded in the knowledge of the speci? c and particularistic (Kozinets, 2002). However, netnography is usually faster, simpler, and less expensive than traditional ethnography (Kozinets, 2002, 2006).Further, it has been argued that new online communication technologies have â€Å"expanded the array of generalized others contributing to the construction of the self† (Cerulo, 1997, p. 386), and netnography as a tool of analyzing online communities is thus able to integrate the broadened spectrum of agents involved in the construction of individual and collective identity. Data collection Because of its size and relevance for the motorcycle community, the Yamaha R1 forum (www. r1-forum. c om) Brand communities for mainstream brands Reto Felix Journal of Consumer Marketing Volume 29  · Number 3  · 2012  · 225 –232 ermission to use direct quotations in this context. However, Kozinet’s concerns about adequate ethical procedures in netnography research are certainly valid, and the pragmatic issue (non-responses for permission requests) ? nally was the one that complicated following his recommendations. The product level: practice and identity Although recreational motorcycling in general is considered a high-risk leisure time activity, there are different segments within the motorcycle community that distinguish themselves in attitudes and behaviors related to riding style and speed.On one extreme of street bike riding are the easy-rider oriented owners of choppers or touring bikes who prefer to ride at moderate speeds and enjoy the immediate experience with the environment. On the other extreme are sports bike enthusiasts who prefer a fast, competiti ve riding style that is often accompanied by the exhibition of riding skills and risky stunting maneuvers such as performing wheelies (Haigh and Crowther, 2005).Commercial sports bikes aim to be copies of racing bikes used by professional riders at the Moto GP or Superbike competitions, and a modern liter bike, available at dealerships for under US$15,000, accelerates from zero to 200 km/h (125 miles) in less than ten seconds and reaches speeds in excess of 290 km/h (180 miles). A complete safety gear, consisting of helmet, leather gear, gloves, and boots, is considered an obligation for any sports bike rider by some, but lead to mock comments by others, ridiculing the â€Å"power ranger† out? t of sports bike riders. An important number of psychological and social con? cts are derived from the inherent nature of sports bike riding. Physical, functional, ? nancial, psychological and social risks form a complex, multilayered ? eld of tensions and constraints that are constantl y negotiated by the individual, both internally and externally, and rarely resolved with simple heuristics. The actual or anticipated implications of an accident are dominant in many of the comments on the R1 forum, as the following sequence of succeeding narratives related to accidents and quitting riding suggests: I quit riding one time in my life.I was just getting married, building a house, etc. [. . . ] and coincidentally I was involved in a string of near misses: cars cutting me off, almost getting side swiped by an idiot who didn’t know how to turn into his own lane, getting run off road and up over a curb through a gas station parking lot by a garbage truck who just decided he wanted to cut across two lanes with no warning. It was my opinion that there was just some bad energy around me right then, and with all the other stress in my life maybe it was adding to the problem. I don’t know.I hung it up for a few years, then got back into it when everything felt ri ght again. It still feels right [. . . ] all the while I’ve witnessed bike wrecks, been close to others’ fatal accidents, laid my own bike down at a track day, etc. [. . . ] but it still feels right for me. My single rule is that as long as my head is in the game, then it’s â€Å"rightâ€Å". If my head is constantly focusing on crashing, dying, etc. [. . . ] then it’s time to take another time-out. Shouldn’t be riding if you can’t focus on what you’re doing. Period. No shame in that (forum member 1).I’ve seen bad accidents but also I believe its mental. With so many, â€Å"I’ve gone down† threads, it can eat your con? dence away and make riding not fun. If it ain’t fun, that’s a good time to step back and let time rebuild your enjoyment (forum member 2). [. . . ] Subscribed [. . . ] (forum member 3). Personally everyday that I wake up and am fortunate enough to ride I tell my wife I love her I get my brain focused and I always keep reminding myself that this could be my last ride and I think that is half the reason I ride so responsibly on the street.I don’t want to have a last ride I love this sport. I have been down once very hard and that was a wake up call but I can’t give up what I love and to all my friends and fellow riders if I do go down and don’t get up please keep riding for me cause I would do the same (forum member 4). The con? ict between the hedonistic and aesthetic pleasures of riding a bike and the inherent risks involved in the activity becomes salient in forum member 2 comment about how riding a motorcycle should be related to fun. Speci? life events, such as those mentioned in forum member 1 narrative, amplify these tensions and may lead to important changes in attitudes or behaviors. However, these attitudinal or behavioral changes are frequently dynamic and unstable in time. For example, the decision to quit riding is in many cases a temporal one, and forum members compare riding to an addiction such as drinking or smoking. This addiction-like need to ride a motorbike then becomes an important factor in identity construction: From the point of view of the individual, riders do not choose riding a motorbike in order to signal certain values.Rather, as expressed by forum member 4, the activity forms a natural part of the self and is just there, similar to early conceptualizations of gender or race in the essentialist identity logic. Riding a bike is elevated to a mission that does not leave room for choices, and fellow riders are encouraged to honor the dead by continuing the mission and keeping the spirit alive. The inherent trait of being addicted to motorcycles is assessed critically in a re? ective discourse by many riders. For example, forum member 5 explains that he is aware of the multiple con? cts that surround his hobby, but apparently resolves these con? icts by stating that riding is the most importan t thing in his life, and that he has learned that riding makes him happy. The shared consciousness and discourse related to themes such as the risk of experiencing a severe accident, losing a fellow rider, or problems with girlfriends, spouses, or the family in general, leads to a collective identity that is constructed, complex, and deprived of precise classi? cations. The brand level: attitudes mediating identity constructionThe negotiations of meaning related to the practice of riding a sports bike are reproduced at the more speci? c brand level. Whereas previous research on brand communities has been largely focused on communities with extraordinary high levels of brand loyalty and commitment, members of the R1 sports bike community show a more ambiguous and differentiated relationship with the Yamaha brand: I’m really faithful to Yamaha, but when sitting on a new R1 and a new GSXR1000 side by side, I have to say I like the Suzuki. The R1 just feels so much [. . . bigger. I don’t know. Also, the magazines bitch about the suspension [. . . ] yet how many serious track people leave suspension stock anyway? Regardless, I’m too poor to buy a new bike, so I’ll continue riding my 02 R1 on the track (forum member 6). Faithfulness in this context is not experienced as absolute loyalty to only one brand. Rather, it is legitimate to question publicly the qualities of the favorite brand. Contrary to what might be expected, forum member 6 receives very few objections from the community members, and a relatively ational, attribute-based discussion of the merits and disadvantages of different motorcycle brands and models follows. In general, discourses presented by the forum members include few elements of real enthusiasm and emotional commitment for the brand. Apparently, community members perceive both the products and the brands in the sports bike category as little differentiated. This does not mean that R1 owners are dissatis? ed with th eir bike 227 Brand communities for mainstream brands Reto Felix Journal of Consumer Marketing Volume 29  · Number 3  · 2012  · 225 –232 r the Yamaha brand in general. Rather, the speci? c situation of the sports bike community suggests customers who are highly satis? ed with their brand, yet nevertheless would switch to another brand easily. It has been suggested that brand loyalty can be measured by asking individuals how likely it is they would recommend the brand to a friend or colleague (Reichheld, 2003). Because people new to sports bike riding frequently ask for advice on the forum, a great number of posts are related to what bike from which brand would be recommended.Typical answers include statements such as â€Å"any of the new bikes are great† (forum member 7) or â€Å"I’ve spent some time on all the bikes and seriously there is no true winner, no matter what you get nowadays is a rocket out of the crate and you will be getting a good bike! Each has its ups and down but overall I could see myself on any of them really! † (forum member 8). Rather than showing indifference, consumers like and actually buy any of the important sports bike brands.Using the conceptual partition of the awareness set into an evoked set, an inert set, and an inept set (Narayana and Markin, 1975; Spiggle and Seawall, 1987), it seems that R1 community members place most of the important sports bike brands into the evoked set, whereas the inert set is relatively small. Instead of a highly committed loyalty to one single brand, as in previous accounts of brand communities, the Yamaha R1 brand community is, if anything, prone to multi-brand or split loyalty (Jacoby, 1971; Jacoby and Kyner, 1973). Identity is thus less de? ed by a speci? c brand, but rather by the activity of riding a sports bike itself. Wherever brand personalities in? uence decision making, it seems that these criteria are exclusive rather than inclusive. That is, the considerat ion set is not formed by the inclusion of a speci? c brand or set of brands, but rather by excluding unattractive brands. For example, in the R1 forum, some members distance themselves from Suzuki, one of Yamaha’s main competitors, because they don’t identify with the people who ride Suzukis: Yes, gixxer is by far the â€Å"squid bike† all the ? st time riders and newbies love the gixxers [. . . ] Their mentality and unfriendly attitude is because they are young, dumb, and think their bike is the best ever (forum member 9). the brand and clash with the otherwise positively perceived performance and quality of the product. The identity of the R1 brand community is further formed by the relationship with two other groups of motorcycles. On one hand, most forum members seem to admire the more exclusive Italian sports bike brands, such as Ducati and MV Agusta.On the other hand, the relationship to Harley Davidson is not marked by a clear distinction of acceptance ve rsus rejection pattern, but rather by a complicated and sometimes ambiguous pattern of mixed emotions toward the brand and its users: There are a lot of douche bag riders, Harley and sportbike alike, but I will admit I’ve ? ipped off quite a few Harley riders. I’ve gotten less camaraderie from Harley riders than anyone, but those are just the young wannabies, the old guys are usually cool tho, hahaha (forum member 10). In motorcycle slang, Gixxer stands for Suzuki’s GSX-R line of super sport motorbikes.Forum members do not reject the Suzuki brand because of issues with the quality or performance of the product, but rather because of the characteristics of the riders who use the brand. Squid, an expression that, according to some forum members, is a combination of the two words â€Å"squirrel† and â€Å"kid,† describes irresponsible motorcycle riders who overestimate their riding skills and frequently wear inappropriate and insuf? cient riding gear. By claiming that the Suzuki GSX-R series is the typical squid bike, attributes of the consumers are ascribed to the brand.Thus, brand identity is built on exclusion (â€Å"this is not how we want to be†) rather than on inclusion. Further, meaning transfer in this case deviates substantially from the traditional symbolic consumption process. Symbolic consumption suggests that individuals transfer the symbolic meaning of a brand to themselves, and subsequently the audience, such as peers and signi? cant others, assigns the attributes of the brand to the individual (Grubb and Grathwohl, 1967). However, meaning in the example above is transferred in the reverse direction, from the user to the brand.Negative attributes of Suzuki brand users (such as being squiddish, dumb, and inexperienced) are transferred to 228 Here, forum member 10 develops a differentiated look toward Harley-Davidson riders by explaining that the less friendly Harley riders are typically those that are younge r (and thus less experienced), whereas the older riders seem to be more open. Both positive and negative feelings co-exist at the same time as the result of a cognitive evaluation that avoids simple stereotyping found at other brand communities.Many R1 forum members perceive the Harley-Davidson brand as both cool and obsolete at the same time, and this ambiguity toward the brand is replicated for the users of the brand, where Harley-Davidson riders have been experienced as both cool and authentic riders or as ignorant and unfriendly â€Å"weekend warriors. † Thus, brands in the R1 community are not iconic symbols that unambiguously communicate attitudes and lifestyles of brand users to the larger audience via the meaning of the brand.Rather, brands are complex, multidimensional entities that gain meaning only in the reciprocal relationship with the brand user. Unconditional single-brand loyalty and â€Å"we† versus â€Å"us† stereotypes are replaced in large par t by ambiguous, differentiated, and often critical attitudes toward the own brand. Brand identity is based on exclusion (Suzuki is a typical brand for squids) instead of inclusion, and within a relatively large evoked set, multi-brand loyalty is more common than religious-like brand worshipping described for, e. g. the Apple Newton. Conclusions and managerial implicationsBrand communities have sparked the interest of marketing researchers and practitioners alike because of the high levels of brand loyalty and commitment observed in previous studies on brands such as Apple, Jeep, or Harley Davidson. However, the results of this qualitative study suggest that instead of single-brand loyalty, consumers for mainstream brands may be more prone to multi-brand loyalty. As forum member 8 (see citation above) expressed it, â€Å"[. . . ] no matter what you get nowadays is a rocket out of the crate and you will be getting a good bike!Each has its ups and down but overall I could see myself o n any of them really! † The case of the Yamaha R1 brand community thus presents preliminary evidence that speci? c industry conditions may shape the relationships consumers have with their brand, and more speci? cally, that multi-brand loyalty is more probable to occur for low levels of brand differentiation (Felix, 2009) combined with more choices (Bennett and Rundle-Thiele, 2005). It follows that from the point of view of a company, having many members in a speci? c brand community does not necessarily translate into a highly loyal customer base.Rather, under certain Brand communities for mainstream brands Reto Felix Journal of Consumer Marketing Volume 29  · Number 3  · 2012  · 225 –232 conditions, higher levels of participation may actually increase the likelihood of adopting products from competing brands, especially if individuals are simultaneously members in several brand communities (Thompson and Sinha, 2008). The results of this study suggest that market ers should monitor and track consumers’ motivations, attitudes, and decision making processes on two levels: On the product level, it is important for marketers to understand barriers and con? cts related to the general use of the product. In the speci? c case of a sports bike, the physical risk (in the form of experiencing a severe accident) is probably the most important issue, which in turn may lead to substantial social tensions, especially with family members. For other products, such as clothing, computers, or food, the motivations why consumers may or may not consider a speci? c product category may be different, but it remains essential to understand these reasons. On the brand level, it is important for marketers to understand the degree of brand identi? ation in the community as well as the way how consumers perceive a consciousness of kind, share rituals and traditions, and experience a sense of moral responsibility ? (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001). In a world of online consumer-to-consumer communications, companies are increasingly losing control over their brands. It is therefore important for marketers to get involved in the process of image building and brand positioning in online communication platforms. Non-company-run communities, such as the Yamaha R1 forum, bear the risk of community members transmitting brand information in a way not desired by the company (Stokburger-Sauer, 2010).Marketers thus should try to integrate consumers by either sponsoring an entire discussion website, a forum, or part of a forum (Pitta and Fowler, 2005). Finally, an unobtrusive and authentic way of increasing a company’s involvement in a noncompany-run forum is exempli? ed by a company that provides motorcycle braking systems. One of the company’s employees invites Yamaha R1 forum members to ask him brake related questions and explains that he is on the forum not to sell, but to educate riders about brakes in general.By choosing a nonselli ng approach in the R1 forum, the company manages to gain credibility in the community and to build customer relationships that are more consumer-focused and authentic than many of the hard-selling approaches at the dealerships. The employee’s thread on brake questions has more than 600 postings, which is signi? cantly above the forum’s average of around 15 postings per thread, and evidences the interest of the community in a direct contact with company representatives. The example also suggests that online communities are not limited to relationships between consumers and the brand and between consumers and consumers.Rather, consumers develop complex relationships with several brands, products, marketing agents, and other consumers within the same community. brand love are divided among the different brands in the evoked set? Or is it possible that several brands receive the same amount of commitment and dedication, as might be claimed by a husband being in a polygynou s relationship with several wives? Finally, how can corporations increase their share in the multi-loyal brand set? As in many other industries, differentiation on the product level seems to be dif? cult for sports bikes, but efforts in brand communication, e. . by using events and experiences to build brand image, might be a promising avenue to go. References Algesheimer, R. , Dholakia, U. M. and Herrmann, A. (2005), â€Å"The social in? uence of brand community: evidence from European car clubs†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 69 No. 3, pp. 19-34. Arnould, E. J. and Wallendorf, M. (1994), â€Å"Market-oriented ethnography: interpretation building and marketing strategy formulation†, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 484-504. Belk, R. W. and Tumbat, G. (2005), â€Å"The cult of Macintosh†, Consumption, Markets, and Culture, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 205-17. Belk, R. W. Sherry, J. F. Jr and Wallendorf, M. (1988), â€Å"A naturalistic inquiry into buyer and seller behavior at a swap meet†, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 449-70. Bennett, R. and Rundle-Thiele, S. (2005), â€Å"The brand loyalty life cycle: implications for marketers†, Brand Management, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 250-63. Brown, S. , Kozinets, R. V. and Sherry, J. F. Jr (2003), â€Å"Teaching old brands new tricks: retro branding and the revival of brand meaning†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 67 No. 2, pp. 19-33. Cerulo, K. A. (1997), â€Å"Identity construction: new issues, new directions†, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 385-409. Cova, B. and Pace, S. (2006), â€Å"Brand community of convenience products: new forms of customer empowerment – the case ‘my Nutella The community’†, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 40 Nos 9/10, pp. 1087-106. Felix, R. (2009), â€Å"Explaining loyalty: the personal relationship analogy†, in Kehoe, W. J. and Whitten, L. K. (Eds), Advances in Marketing: Embraci ng Challenges and Change, Society for Marketing Advances, Tuscaloosa, AL, pp. 59-62. Fournier, S. and Lee, L. (2009), â€Å"Getting brand communities right†, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 87 No. 4, pp. 105-11. Giesler, M. 2006), â€Å"Consumer gift systems: insights from Napster†, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 283-90. Grubb, E. L. and Grathwohl, H. L. (1967), â€Å"Consumer selfconcept, symbolism and market behavior: a theoretical approach†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 22-7. Haigh, J. and Crowther, G. (2005), â€Å"Interpreting motorcycling through its embodiment in life story narratives†, Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 21 Nos 5/6, pp. 555-72. Harley-Davidson (2009), â€Å"Annual report†, available at: www. harley-davidson. com/en_US/Media/downloads/Annual_ Reports/2009/HD_Annual2009. df (accessed June 14, 2010). 229 Avenues for future research Future research may strive to examine in more detail the impact of overlapping (i. e. multiple) community memberships (McAlexander et al. , 2002). There are also questions about the speci? c impact of multi-brand loyalty on brand relationships. For example, if multi-brand loyalty is the more adequate model to describe brand relationships for mainstream brands, does that mean that commitment and Brand communities for mainstream brands Reto Felix Journal of Consumer Marketing Volume 29  · Number 3  · 2012  · 225 –232 Hickman, T. nd Ward, J. (2007), â€Å"The dark side of brand community: inter-group stereotyping, trash talk, and Schadenfreude†, in Fitzsimons, G. and Morwitz, V. (Eds), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 34, Association for Consumer Research, Duluth, MN, pp. 314-9. Hollenbeck, C. R. and Zinkhan, G. M. (2006), â€Å"Consumer activism on the internet: the role of anti-brand communities†, in Pechmann, C. and Price, L. (Eds), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 33, Association for Consumer Research, Duluth, MN, pp. 479-85. Jacoby, J. (1971), â€Å"A model of multi-brand loyalty†, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 1 No. 3, pp. 25-31. Jacoby, J. and Kyner, D. B. (1973), â€Å"Brand loyalty vs. repeat purchasing behavior†, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 1-9. Kozinets, R. V. (1997), â€Å"I want to believe: a netnography of the X-Philes’ subculture of consumption†, in Brucks, M. and MacInnis, D. J. (Eds), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 24, Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT, pp. 470-5. Kozinets, R. V. (1999), â€Å"E-tribalized marketing? The strategic implications of virtual communities of consumption†, European Management Journal, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 252-64. Kozinets, R. V. 2001), â€Å"Utopian enterprise: articulating the meanings of Star Trek’s culture of consumption†, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 67-88. Kozinets, R. V. (2002), â€Å"The ? eld behind the screen: using netnography for marketing research in online communities†, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 61-72. Kozinets, R. V. (2006), â€Å"Click to connect: netnography and tribal advertising†, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 46 No. 3, pp. 279-88. Langer, R. and Beckman, S. C. (2005), â€Å"Sensitive research topics: netnography revisited†, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. No. 2, pp. 189-203. Leigh, T. W. , Peters, C. and Shelton, J. (2006), â€Å"The consumer quest for authenticity: the multiplicity of meanings within the MG subculture of consumption†, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 34 No. 4, pp. 481-93. Lincoln, Y. S. and Guba, E. G. (1985), Naturalistic Inquiry, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA. Luedicke, M. K. , Thompson, C. J. and Giesler, M. (2010), â€Å"Consumer identity work as moral protagonism: how myth and ideology animate a brand-mediated moral con? ict†, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 36 No. 6, pp. 1016-32. McAlexander, J. H. , Kim, S.K. and Roberts, S. D. (2003), â€Å"Loyalty: the in? uences of satisfaction and brand community integration†, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 1-11. McAlexander, J. H. , Schouten, J. W. and Koenig, H. F. (2002), â€Å"Building brand community†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 66 No. 1, pp. 38-54. ? Muniz, A. M. Jr and Hamer, L. O. (2001), â€Å"Us versus them: oppositional brand loyalty and the Cola wars†, in Gilly, M. C. and Meyers-Levy, J. (Eds), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 28, Association for Consumer Research, Valdosta, GA, pp. 355-61. ? Muniz, A. M. Jr and O’Guinn, T. C. 2001), â€Å"Brand community†, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 412-32. 230 ? Muniz, A. M. Jr and Schau, H. J. (2005), â€Å"Religiosity in the abandoned Apple Newton brand community†, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 737-47. Narayana, C. L. and Markin, R. J. (1975), â€Å"Consumer behavior and product performance: an alternative conceptualization†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 39 No. 4, pp. 1-6. Nelson, M. R. and Otnes, C. C. (2005), â€Å"Exploring crosscultural ambivalence: a netnography of intercultural wedding message boards†, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 89-95.Ouwersloot, H. and Odekerken-Schroder, G. (2008), â€Å"Who’s ? who in brand communities – and why? †, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 42 Nos 5/6, pp. 571-85. Pitta, D. A. and Fowler, D. (2005), â€Å"Internet community forums: an untapped resource for consumer marketers†, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 5, pp. 265-74. Reichheld, F. F. (2003), â€Å"The one number you need to grow†, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 81 No. 12, pp. 46-54. ? Schau, H. J. and Muniz, A. M. Jr (2006), â€Å"A tale of tales: the Apple Newton narratives†, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 19-33. ? Schau, H. J. Muniz, A. M. Jr and Arnould, E. J. (2009), â€Å"How brand community practices create value†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 73 No. 5, pp. 30-51. Schouten, J. W. and McAlexander, J. H. (1995), â€Å"Subcultures of consumption: an ethnography of the new bikers†, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 43-61. Schouten, J. W. , McAlexander, J. H. and Koenig, H. F. (2007), â€Å"Transcendent customer experience and brand community†, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 357-68. Spiggle, S. and Seawall, M. A. (1987), â€Å"A choice sets model of retail selection†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 97-111. Stokburger-Sauer, N. (2010), â€Å"Brand communities: drivers and outcomes†, Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 347-68. Thompson, S. A. and Sinha, R. K. (2008), â€Å"Brand communities and new product adoption: the in? uence and limits of oppositional loyalty†, Journal of Marketing, Vol . 72 No. 6, pp. 65-80. ? Torres-Moraga, E. , Vasquez-Parraga, A. Z. and Zamora? Gonzalez, J. (2008), â€Å"Customer satisfaction and loyalty: start with the product, culminate with the brand†, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 302-13. Wallendorf, M. and Belk, R.W. (1989), â€Å"Assessing trustworthiness in naturalistic consumer research†, in Hirschman, E. C. (Ed. ), Interpretive Consumer Research, Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT, pp. 69-84. Yamaha Motor Co. (2009), â€Å"Annual report†, available at: www. yamaha-motor. co. jp/global/ir/material/pdf/2009/2009 annual-e. pdf (accessed June 14, 2010). About the author Reto Felix is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Monterrey, Mexico. He received his Master’s in Marketing and PhD in Business Administration from the University of St Gallen, Switzerland.He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Marketing Group, Haas School of Business, University of California, Ber keley, and has published in journals such as Journal of International Marketing, Journal of Brand communities for mainstream brands Reto Felix Journal of Consumer Marketing Volume 29  · Number 3  · 2012  · 225 –232 Business & Industrial Marketing, and Journal of International Consumer Marketing. Further, he has presented his research at conferences hosted by the Association for Consumer Research, the American Marketing Association, the Academy of Marketing Science and the Society for Marketing Advances.Reto Felix can be contacted at: [email  protected] edu. mx Executive summary and implications for managers and executives This summary has been provided to allow managers and executives a rapid appreciation of the content of this article. Those with a particular interest in the topic covered may then read the article in toto to take advantage of the more comprehensive description of the research undertaken and its results to get the full bene? ts of the material present . The topic of brand communities has provided the focus for much marketing literature.Brand communities transcend geographical boundaries and contain people who exhibit passion for a particular brand. These individuals also display similarities in consciousness while â€Å"shared rituals and traditions† is another cornerstone of their social relationships. Some scholars have even noted the propensity for â€Å"religious-like† associations to develop. Evidence shows that groups can be based locally, online or a combination of both. A wide range of products has supplied the inspiration for brand communities to form. In addition to strong consumer identi? ation with the brands, â€Å"clear and unique positioning† is viewed as a common characteristic among brands concerned. Brand loyalty can be fervent to a degree that an â€Å"us and them† mentality often arises with regard to other brands. Bonding within the community can generate stereotypes and outsiders are treated with some disdain. Any failure of competitor brands is cause for celebration. It is, however, a misconception to assume that brand communities are always homogenous. Signi? cant internal differences appear to be the rule not the exception.Relationship intensity with other members is subject to variation because some are loyal to the brand while others may identify more closely with the product. Levels of social orientation can similarly differ. Researchers have also pointed out the possibility of some individuals lacking interest in brand, product and social relationships yet remaining in the community. Others might become involved with different brand communities in the same product category, resulting in further dissemination of loyalty. Felix explores the topic in a study of an online Yamaha brand community principally devoted to the Japanese manufacturer’s R1 luxury sports otorcycle. Yamaha is one of the world’s leading brands in its category and in 200 9 boasted sales of $12. 5 billion. At the time of the study, there were 107,249 registered members in the R1 forum. Some members did not currently own a motorcycle, while others possessed a different brand. The author considers netnography as the most relevant study method for the investigation of brand relationships and â€Å"identity construction of an online community†. This approach is regarded as ethnography adapted for the purpose of exploring online communities. Among other things, netnography has been commended for its ? xibility, 231 open-endedness and interpretative qualities. Different researchers have used the approach in a variety of study contexts including cars, consumer gifts and TV programs. Following initial analysis of messages posted on the forum, the threads were arranged into ? ve different sections respectively labeled as: Community; R1-related Discussion; Technique, Racing and Stunt Discussion; Marketplace/ Classi? ed; and Miscellaneous Section. Analys is of the threads enabled messages to be coded and then organized into â€Å"interpretive themes† so that appropriate â€Å"layers of meaning† could be identi? d. Message themes were analyzed at the product level to ascertain factors which in? uence practice and identity. In general, considerable risk is associated with riding a motorcycle for leisure purposes. But the variation in attitudes towards factors like speed and riding style means that different segments exist within the biking community. At one end of the continuum are those who ride around at moderate speeds to savor the experience with the environment. Positioned at the other extreme are bikers whose penchant for high speed is often accompanied by an aggressive style of riding.Such individuals are also likelier to ? aunt their biking skills through dangerous maneuvers like pulling wheelies. According to Felix, riding a motorcycle gives rise to various risks and con? icts that can be physical, functional, ? nancial, psychological or social in nature. The activity is therefore highly complex and generates a web of â€Å"tensions and constraints† that the individual must constantly address internally and externally. Concern about accidents is a recurring theme with community members referring to â€Å"actual or anticipated implications† in that eventuality.Message content reveals that con? ict exists between knowledge of the intrinsic risks associated with bike riding and the grati? cation derived from it. Forum members suggest that such tensions may prompt attitude or behavioral changes, albeit sometimes ? eeting in nature. This occurs because riding a motorcycle is almost addictive and an important aspect of identity construction. Some comments imply that it is a â€Å"mission† that simply has to be ful? lled. Even though members are aware of the con? icts which surround this pastime, the desire to ride is the main driving force.Analysis reveals a â€Å"shared co nsciousness† about issues including serious accidents, loss of a fellow biker, and problems relating to the family. The author ascertains a collective identity that is complex in nature but dif? cult to categorize precisely. An examination of meaning at the speci? c brand level reveals a relationship between forum members and the Yamaha brand that is â€Å"ambiguous and differentiated†. Instead of absolute loyalty to the brand, it is more evident that people engage in balanced debate about its qualities and those of other motorcycle brands.Members apparently perceive little differentiation between brands and may switch to another brand even if they are highly satis? ed. Many studies have noted that some consumers can display loyalty to multiple brands and there is some evidence of this tendency here. Messages seeking advice on future purchases are frequent and members typically recommend a range of brands they consider decent. In the opinion of Felix, this indicates tha t riding a sports motorcycle de? nes identity much more that the speci? c brand of bike. Another signi? cant ? nding is how decision making seems in? enced more by exclusive than inclusive brand criteria. A Brand communities for mainstream brands Reto Felix Journal of Consumer Marketing Volume 29  · Number 3  · 2012  · 225 –232 key example is the negative perceptions of the Suzuki brand among some R1 forum members. The interesting fact about this hostility is that is has little to do with product quality concerns. Instead, such evaluation arises because members question those who ride Suzuki sport bikes. With regard to identity construction, meaning is normally transferred from brand to individual. Here, however, it is the negative traits of Suzuki riders that re transferred to the brand. Some con? ict with positive perceptions of the product subsequently occurs. That brands are complex and multidimensional is further illustrated by the contrasting ways in which R1 memb ers relate to Harley Davidson. Positive and negative feelings exist simultaneously as the brand is regarded as cool yet obsolete. Contrasting statements are likewise directed at Harley Davidson riders. One important deduction is that ambiguity surrounds brand meaning, attitude and lifestyle conveyed within this community. This study indicates that consumer-brand relations might be shaped by â€Å"speci? industry conditions†. Marketers are also alerted to lack of clear brand differentiation and the possibility that multi-brand loyalty will ensue, even when a large brand community exists. Understanding what in? uences consumer attitudes, motivations and decision-making at both product and brand level is essential. Certain factors may encourage or deter choice of a particular product, while it is equally important to be aware of brand identi? cation levels and collective sensitivities among consumers. Given the revealing nature of online communication, Felix suggests that ? ms m ight gain greater insight into consumer thinking by becoming actively involved in non-company forums. An unobtrusive approach is considered vital though. The aim should not be to sell but to build authentic consumer-focused relationships with an emphasis on providing advice or information. ? (A precis of the article â€Å"Brand communities for mainstream brands: the example of the Yamaha R1 brand community†. Supplied by Marketing Consultants for Emerald. ) To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email  protected] com Or visit our web site for further details: www. emeraldinsight. com/reprints 232

International Relations in the world Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

International Relations in the world - Essay Example The United Kingdom naturally enjoys several benefits out of this approach of coalition with the US and Europe simultaneously, while promoting the transatlantic cooperation. However, meeting the costs of the special relationship as well as balancing the coalition with the US and Europe has not been easy for the British government. The stance of providing unprecedented support to the US actions and policies has led to the growth of scepticism in the European Union as well as among the British public and party members. This paper elaborates the US-UK special relationship in the context of enhancing collaboration between the US and Europe. It then examines the cost and benefits associated with this stance of British government. The post cold war period signifies a new geopolitical scenario encompassing the Western world. There have been conflicts, as well as concordance on world issues affecting the state of relations shared by nations. The United Kingdom, not only geographically but also politically, finds itself intimately connected with the European world and the historical 'special relationship' with the United States driven by the nations' commonly shared interests and objectives. This transatlantic relationship not only affects the British foreign policy but also influences the dimensions of relationship between the United States and the European Union. The British government, in effect, regards itself as playing a bridging role between the United States and the Europe. This relationship, according to Wallace (2005, p55), "conjures up an image of British ministers and diplomats explaining European international politics to American leaders, and interpreting American foreign policy to European governments". The British prime ministers historically have been playing eminent role in bringing European countries closer to the United States. It also happens to be an important aspect of Britain's foreign policy for the current Prime Minister Tony Blair, to balance the British relationship with the United States and the European countries as well as to promote cooperation between the US and Europe. Hence, the government undertakes rigorous efforts as a part of its foreign policy to enhance this multilateral collaboration. The historic relationship between the US and UK was further bolstered up by the 9/11 event and the United States' subsequent war on terror, whereupon Britain provided full military and political support to the American stance to wage war on Afghanistan and then Iraq. Dumbrell (2006, pp. 456-457) asserts that Tony Blair has succeeded in developing a "special relationship" with the United States channelled through its support for the war on terror; hence projecting it as the greatest US ally. The Britain's stance for bridging relationship between the US and the Europe certainly implies increasing collaboration between these countries and communicating the need to enhance multilateral cooperation leading to the achievement of their national interests. Benefit And Costs Of The Approach The approach of playing a 'bridging role' between the US and Europe relations procures significant geopolitical gains to the United Kingdom. Britain aspires to maintain its influence over the international politics and policies, but lacks resources to accomplish this objective.

The processes that occur in the Network when you Essay

The processes that occur in the Network when you - Essay Example There are several processes that are running concurrently, both at server and client ends, to make this communication a success. A thorough knowledge of these devices and their roles, protocols and associated technologies, at various levels of the network, is required for understanding the process that take place in a network for communication to occur successfully. Analyzing the process at various layers of a network demands a methodical comprehension of a ‘broad brush’ picture of the communication channel and protocol stack that might be at work behind the scene. More often than not, access to private networks, like the X-Stream server from our home or some other remote location is materialized through Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology. VPN is used to access a private network, like a university Learning Management System (LMS), over a public network like the Internet. When a student access X-Stream Server over a public network, this implementation of VPN is know n to be an ‘Access VPN’. VPN ensures a secure access to the private resource through implementation of security at various layers of the communication channel. ... rs used to define communication spectrum over the TCP/IP suit of protocols includes; Application Layer, Host to Host Layer , Internet Layer and Network Access Layer. The process that occurs on the network is mainly the study of data as it travels through the TCP/IP stack because WAN is only used as a vehicle to carry data and no significant processing is done as far the data is concerned. There are several important protocols that forms a part of the TCP/IP protocol suite which includes FTP, TFTP, VoIP, HTTP, ICMP, UDP, ARP and RARP etc. Moreover the RIP and OSPF are also the part of TCP/IP protocol suite which ensures the routing of the information over a network. From a user’s perspective the process that occur on a network starts with the use of application software that can talk to a underlying network e.g. a web browser that uses HTTP to make things happen for a user. Comer refers this as the application level internet service and states, â€Å"From a user’s point view, the internet appears to consist of a set of application programs that use the underlying network to carry out useful communication tasks†(3). Moreover the session of communication instance is maintained at the Application Layer, however these session are not logged by HTTP. â€Å"Each HTTP request is self-contained; the server does not keep a history of previous request or previous sessions† (Comer, 490). At next level the processes to ensure and enforce the data integrity, correctness and reliable packet delivery are guarded by the Host to Host layer. This layer also segments and sequences the continuous stream of data that leaves a user end and reassembles it at server end while acknowledging the receipt of each segment. â€Å"As each segment of data is received at the destination, an

The assignment should be presented as a Journal opinion article and

The should be presented as a Journal opinion article and address an economic issue of current interest to Wall Street - Assignment Example Louis named James Bullard revealed that the outlook of different monetary policies is incessantly enhancing the turbulent financial scenario along with mitigating the challenges resulting from inflationary pressures by a greater level. Moreover, Bullard proclaimed that the enhancement in the financial landscape might assist in slowing down the tempo of buying bonds at large (Derby, â€Å"Fed's Bullard: Weak Inflation May Argue for More Fed Stimulus†). Relating to the article, Bullard affirmed that though the conditions of the labour market have enhanced, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) can slow down the pace of purchasing bonds. But, the rise of the crucial aspect concerning weak inflation might reveal that FOMC would have to raise its tempo in buying bonds (Derby, â€Å"Fed's Bullard: Weak Inflation May Argue for More Fed Stimulus†). This can be justified with reference to the other article i.e. â€Å"Fed head says low inflation may warrant prolonging bond-bu ying program† which presented by Steve Matthews and Greg Quinn that the vital concern of weak inflation below 2 percent target of the Central Bank may raise the extensive usage of bond buying for the purpose of developing financial position and most significantly lessening the rate of unemployment. It has been apparently observed in this particular article that the FOMC will continue to purchase bonds until the conditions of the labour market enhanced considerably. In response, Bullard proclaimed that this major decision of FOMC can be related with an important concern. In this regard, the significant concern has been viewed to be the consideration of low-interest charges that can be linked with extreme risk-taking especially in the financial business markets by FOMC (Matthews and Quinn, â€Å"Fed head says low inflation may warrant prolonging bond-buying program†). According to the article â€Å"Fed Stimulus Stays Strong† which presented by Joseph Cafariello, it can be viewed that FOMC tends or promises to buy extra agency based mortgage-backed securities at $40 billion and also long-term based Treasury securities at $45 billion on a monthly basis with the motive of attaining certain additional benefits. These benefits comprise preserving downward pressure resulting from the imposition of interest charges that are long term, assisting mortgage markets and most vitally making wider financial circumstances much more accommodative among others. Furthermore, Cafariello argued in the article that the committee is quite prepared to raise or lessen its purchase of bonds or securities by taking into concern the prevailing conditions of the labour market. Similarly, it has been viewed in the article that like FOMC, the FED is also keeping itself much open towards raising or lessening purchase of bonds or securities as financial conditions necessitate. As mentioned in the article, both FOMC and the FED is much concerned towards increasing or lesseni ng their respective pace of buying bonds or securities owing to the reason that different fiscal policies are restraining financial growth by a greater level and most vitally weakening the economy at large (Cafariello, â€Å"Fed Stimulus Stays Strong†). In accordance with the article i.e. â€Å"Fed's Bullard: Weak Inflation May Argue For More Fed Stimulus† which presented by Michael S. Derby, it can be apparently observ

Options for Lords reform Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7000 words

Options for Lords reform - Essay Example this initiative there would be only a mere ninety-two hereditary Peers in the House of Lords and that too by election from within the large number of old Hereditary Lords. The House of Lords would then be dominated by appointed Peers and the hereditary Peers a mere rump of their size in days gone by. This situation would only last till the contemplated second phase of reforms of the House of Lords was finalised. It is this second phase of the reform of the House of Lords that becomes significant, for it means choosing from one of the many options that are present for the reform of the House of Lords. The Saxon Kings in the eleventh century consulted a council called the Witans on important issues. Religious leaders, magnates and ministers of the King attended the Witans. By the thirteenth century the attendance in these councils grew to include representatives of counties, cities and boroughs. However, in a true sense the House of Lords finds in origins in the fourteenth century, when these royal advisers were divided into commoners and lords. (History: How the Lords evolved). Shire and borough representatives were termed as commoners and made up the Commons, while the religious leaders termed Lords Spiritual and the magnates termed Lords Temporal came to be known as the Upper House. Thus two clearly distinct houses came into existence. By the fifteenth century the membership of Lords Temporal started becoming a male domain and hereditary by nature and the role of the monarch in the choice of the members diminishing, as they were summoned by writ. The term peers started being ap plied to the Lords Temporal and though equal there emerged five ranks namely Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron. The sixteenth century brought changes to the attendance of the Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords. Till 1539 when the suppression of the monasteries took place the Lords Spiritual were made up of bishops, abbots and priors. Subsequent to 1539 only bishops made up the

Organizational Planning Worksheet Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Organizational Planning Worksheet - Assignment Example Fortune 500 Company name National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) 2. The company’s internal and external stakeholders Internal stakeholder’s External stakeholder’s Employees Customers Managers Suppliers Executive directors Government Non-executive directorsSociety ShareholdersCreditors 3. Company’s mission and vision Company’s mission To serve as the best economical and safe operation national passenger railway system in the region. Company’s vision To equip the country with a transit option that is reliable, safe and affordable connecting all the major population centers. 4. Company goals At least one company goal that can be accomplished through a strategic plan To increase the company’s markets share in the region. To increase the size of the company by maximizing its wealth. At least one company goal that can be accomplished through an operational plan To be a more efficient transit option to the general public. To increase the safety procedures in the rail system company. 5. SWOT analysis Strengths Weaknesses The company is dominant in the market. Availability of financial limitations. The company offers unique services to the customers. The challenge of target market segmentation. The company operates in convenient locations and has local stops. The company has inadequate structure. Opportunities Threats The company has unique selling propositions such as having more destinations and affordable rates. The presence of discount airlines. The company has good pricing strategies such as the having steep discounts that targeting of niche markets. Private train firms provide stiff competition. The company gets federal funding by way of privatization. The presence of poor economic conditions.

The Challenges of Developing a Strategic Enterprise Resource Plan Essay

The Challenges of Developing a Strategic Enterprise Resource Plan (ERP) Program for the Small Business - Essay Example I would like to thank her for teaching me how to navigate through the ocean of knowledge. I am equally overwhelmed by the unflinching support of all my other professors, lecturers and administrative staff and the library staff at the _____________ University and thank them profusely. Their slightest disarrangement would have distracted my focus from the research. Finally, a paper of this nature is a lifetime opportunity, in the sense it not only provides an opportunity to study a problem in depth, but it also provides a window to express an opinion to the issues that affects the object of study. Implementation of ERP is a matter of importance and is of benefit to many. Any research on this subject would contribute to spreading prosperity in the society. I sincerely thank my previous researchers for providing me the inspiration and information required to carry on their research to a next level. At the end, I pray the almighty whose invisible hands have guided me to successfully undertake this project. I sincerely hope that the project is useful to the society and help prosperity in its own way. Enterprise Resource Planning and a small business! It’s like a missile launcher in the hands of a child. This is in fact is the subject of this paper. How can a small business successfully develop and implement an ERP system to accrue strategic benefits for the company. Technology and globalization have made a small business to appear big and move to capture new territories which were erstwhile areas controlled by industry goliaths. Technology has now made new weapons available to the â€Å"David†, the small business. Globalization is now defining the new arena that was until now not available to it. The small business is now is much stronger and no longer restricted to its neighborhood and be leveled as the â€Å"local guy†. It is now evidently becoming the â€Å"global guy†, taking orders and

Should parents get DNA testing while pregnant Essay

Should parents get DNA testing while pregnant - Essay Example The genetic material of a person is hence derived from the genetic material of both parents in equal amounts. Comparing the genetic material of one individual to that of another will show whether one of them was derived from the other. There are two types of testing, chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis. Chorionic villus is usually done ten to twelve weeks. It involves taking a small sample of some cells from the placenta that contains the same genetic material as that of the fetus. It can be checked for chromosomal abnormalities and other genetic disorders. Amniocentesis is considered the gold standard. It is done between the fifteenth and twentieth week of pregnancy by extracting from amniotic fluid. The fluid contains cells that are from the fetus with genetic information about the unborn child. DNA testing done can be done early in pregnancy. It can be done in the first trimester of pregnancy. Neither the baby nor the mother is placed at risk during the test since it’s not a medical procedure, but only requires a collection of blood from the mother and father. The process involves microarray technology by analyzing a baby’s DNA that is found naturally in the mother’s bloodstream. Amniocentesis is normally done at the end of the first trimester (Arulkumaran, pp. 18). There are various reasons for either the mother or the potential father wanting to know the biological paternity of the unborn baby. Peace of mind to a pregnant mother is essential since any added stress can be harmful to her and her baby. DNA testing normally has a 99.99% of accuracy. Knowing that the DNA test has a high degree of accuracy ascertains the tested person certainly would be the biological father of the child. A DNA test done during pregnancy confirming paternity can pave the way for legal and medical benefits for a child that is born to unmarried parents. In order to have the results

Genetically Modified Foods Essay Example for Free

Genetically Modified Foods Essay Technology has been responsible for bringing about some of the most noteworthy accomplishments of recent generations. Medical cures for deadly diseases, the World Wide Web, faster and more efficient travel options, and advanced irrigation systems are just a few of the recent successes which have all resulted from better technology. Like anything, though, technology can be problematic at best and detrimental at worst if not employed properly. One recent use of technology which leaves many conscientious people uncomfortable is genetically modified foods (GMF). These new food sources are derived from genetically modified organisms (GMO) that have undergone a molecular level change to their DNA by genetically engineering techniques (Gaskill et al. , 1999). Not everyone is convinced that GMF are a positive use of technology. In fact, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) encouraged all physicians to educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid GM foods when possible and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks† (Edwards, 2013). Many skeptics are concerned with the product’s health risks and environmental impact, along with the repercussions for local farmers, particularly those operating in developing countries. Nearly everyone is affected by GMF in one way or another, but some groups of people are more directly affected than others. They include local farmers, food manufacturers, food purchasers, environmentalists/ conservationists, and government agencies. Due to insufficient scientific data concerning the safety of GMF, and the possible catastrophic consequences resulting from the development and use of this product, they should be highly monitored by government agencies and immediately banned in order to protect the public at large. James P Collins CS 300T 9/30/2013 4 Some studies have shown that GMF are potentially hazardous to consumers, especially children, pregnant women, and individuals with compromised immune systems. Many scientists and healthcare professionals argue that GMF are a major contributor to the deteriorating health of people worldwide and possibly even a carcinogen (Edwards, 2013). An increase in blood pressure and heart disease is linked to the consumption of GMF, although these food products are too recent for most researches to be able to conclude anything decisive regarding their long-term effects. Dr. Stanley Ewen, a homeopathic physician, argues that a cauliflower virus oftentimes used in GMF could potentially increase the risk of both colon and stomach cancers. Even if one is able to completely avoid GMF, they are still not safe from the harmful effects. Water sources near crops of GMF are often contaminated by the runoff from the soil. Dr. Ewen maintains that this amount of exposure alone may hasten the growth of malignant tumors (Edwards, 2013). Other studies suggest that animals fed GMF suffer from severe illnesses and die faster than expected. In India, animals that grazed on genetically modified cotton plants died almost immediately. Cows in Germany that ate genetically modified corn products experienced the same fate. Scientists are attributing this phenomenon to GMF’s tendency to produce toxins and suppress the immune system (Kuiper et al, 2001). The Institute for Responsible Technology listed 65 health risks associated with GMF. Rats fed genetically modified potatoes developed precancerous cells in the digestive tract. These rats also showed signs of inhibited development of the brain, liver, and testicles, along with atrophy of the liver and immune system damage. Another study indicated that rats fed Monsanto’s genetically modified corn showed significant changes in their blood cells, livers, and kidneys. Not surprisingly, this mega-company denied James P Collins CS 300T 9/30/2013 5 these findings and refused to conduct follow-up studies to confirm the safety of their food products (65 Health Risks, 2013). A second major drawback of GMF is their negative impact on the environment. As already stated, genetically modified crops pollute soil and water systems. This, in turn, causes adverse consequences on plants and animals (to include humans) that rely on these two natural resources. Insects that live in the soil are oftentimes negatively impacted and die due to chemical changes in the soil composition. The damage to the water affects nearly all animals, as most animals obtain their water from runoff systems (Dill, 2010). Additionally, GMF produce unnatural chemicals that give plants a new way to defend themselves and insects and animals that naturally consume these organisms die. Spiders, caterpillars, and other small insects are particularly vulnerable to these engineered chemicals. Unfortunately, many species are becoming endangered or threatened. Due to cross pollination, crops that are not genetically modified are becoming contaminated. Some scientists are concerned that if this trend is not halted, unaltered food species will become severely compromised and may even go extinct (Kuiper et al, 2001). One noteworthy example is North Dakota’s genetically modified canola plants. Scientists took thousands of random seed samples from across the whole state. Nearly every sample – whether wild or domesticated – contained genetically modified seeds. Further studies identified genetically modified canola seeds in locations as far-reaching as Japan and Ireland. Researchers interpret this data as suggestive of cross-pollination in the wild (Biello, 2010). Furthermore, scientists maintain the genetically modified crops greatly increase the amount of herbicide used. Farmers know that their crops are resistant to most herbicides. Therefore, they tend to use these toxic chemicals more liberally. Since genetically modified James P Collins CS 300T 9/30/2013 6 crops are also modified to produce their own herbicides and pesticides, the end result is that even more toxins are added to the food supply, causing even more contamination (Dill, 2011). A final reason to ban GMF is the negative economic impact these food sources have on small farmers. Many local farmers, who pride themselves on naturally growing their products, are forced out of business due to rising food costs. They cannot compete with large farms that use genetically modified seeds and pesticides on their crops. As more and more organic farmers close their doors, the available unmodified, natural food sources decrease steadily. This, in turn, drives up the prices for consumers, making it harder for the average person to afford healthy alternatives. Local farmers oftentimes have their fields completely destroyed or are forced to forfeit their harvests due to cross pollination. Large seed companies, (such as Monsanto), patent their seeds. If these seeds contaminate the local farmers’ crops, then the mega-companies are legally permitted to confiscate the produce and destroy what remains. This is particularly problematic in developing countries. According to the Center for Food Safety, big seed companies attack and target any farmer who wants to save their seeds. This plan of attack consists of three stages: â€Å"investigations; coerced settlements; and, if that fails, litigation† (Lo, 2013). In the United States alone, Monsanto has sued 410 independent farmers and 56 small business owners for violations of seed patents (Lo, 2013). Unfortunately, this mega-company won every case to date. This resulted in their receiving over $24 million from small time farmers and businesses. Countless other businesses have been forced to close their doors due to threats from Monsanto and other mega-seed corporations (Lo, 2013). Presently, many companies are working to produce even more genetically modified plants and food sources that are even more resilient to predators. Also, many large companies James P Collins CS 300T 9/30/2013 7 are lobbying policy makers in order to have stricter laws and regulations enacted to protect their modified products (Lo, 2013). If these companies are allowed to continue with their agenda, there will be dire consequences. More people will develop horrific illnesses and diseases, the environment will suffer terribly, and local farmers will be forced out of business. The Union of Concerned Scientists (2013) has proposed five ways to prevent these hazardous products from further contaminating consumers’ food supply. First, they suggest that research funding for public crop breeding programs be expanded to help subsidize the cost of producing unaltered, natural food products. Second, they advocate public research funding to develop agro-ecologically based systems of farming. Third, they propose changing patent laws to allow independent companies to experiment on GMF without legal repercussions. Fourth, they maintain that stricter controls should be placed on GMF so that these products do not come to market until scientists and private researchers can better understand their health risks. Lastly, they support food labeling laws that mandate all GMF be labeled appropriately. In conclusion, GMF are detrimental to society as a whole. They are extremely unsafe for human consumption, pose huge risks to the natural environment, and place unfair and unnecessary stressors on local farmers. Due to the numerous uncertainties associated with GMF and the data that supports their harmful side effects, these products should be heavily monitored by government agencies and banned from the public market. It would be wise for the government to adopt the five suggestions put forth by the Union of Concerned Scientists in order to better protect its people. Unfortunately, mega-seed companies have substantially more disposable income than non-profit health and welfare organizations; therefore, they can afford to buy lobbyists to petition lawmakers to make rules and decisions profitable to their agendas. James P Collins CS 300T 9/30/2013 8. Works Cited Biello, D. (2010). Genetically modified crop on the loose and evolving in U. S. Midwest. Scientific American. http://www. scientificamerican. com/article. cfm? id=genetically modified-crop Dill, J. (2010). The dangers of GMOs: Know the environmental hazards. Natural News. http://www. naturalnews. com/029869_GMOs_dangers. html Edwards, R. (2013). GM expert warns of cancer risk from crops. Sunday Herald. 16 February 2013. Gaskill, G. , Bauer, M. , Durant, J. , Allum, N. C. (1999). Worlds apart? The reception of genetically modified foods in Europe and the U. S. Science, 285 (5426): 384-387. Kuiper, H. A. , Kleter, G. A. , Hub P. J. , Noteborn, J. M. , Kok, E. J. (2001). Assessment of the food safety issues related to genetically modified foods. Plant Journal, 27 (6): 503-528. Lo, P. (2013). Monsanto bullies small farmers over planting harvested GMO seeds. British Broadcast Channel. 14 April 2013. N. A. (2013). 65 health risks of genetically modified foods. Institute for Responsible Technology. http://www. responsibletechnology. org/gmo-dangers/65-health-risks/1notes N. A. (2013). Genetic engineering in agriculture. Union of Concerned Scientists. http://www. ucsusa. org/food_and_agriculture/our-failing-food-system/genetic engine ering.

Management Of Innovation Titan Edge History Essay

Management Of Innovation Titan Edge History Essay Innovation is defined as the process by which new products, services, materials and processes are developed and introduced into the market for commercialization. Thus, Innovation is the successful exploitation of new ideas. There are 4Ps of Innovation which are as follows: Product Innovation- Changes in the products/services offered by the company Process Innovation- Changes the way in which the products are created delivered to the customers Position Innovation- Changes the manner in which the product is introduced in the market Paradigm Innovation- Changes the underlying model which changes the way in which the company functions Innovation is very critical for all the businesses in order to grow and survive the fierce competition in the marketplace. Thus companies continuously bring about innovation and introduce a lot of new products and services to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. The companies do this by investing a lot of money in their RD department. There are companies which have the greatest ideas in the world but that do not make them innovative. A starting point of a breakthrough innovation is not an idea but it is an orbit-shifting challenge. Ideas are certainly important as far as innovation is considered but it is not the starting point of the innovation process. To bring about a breakthrough innovation the most important thing for a company is to get a team in place, enroll team members, create strategies, convince stake holders to invest money and finally to create route in order to reach the destination which did not exist before. Problem Statement: The objective of Titan Watch Industries was to design and make the slimmest water-resistant watch in the world. This was the orbit shifting challenge which Mr. Xerxes Desai, the managing director at that time had put forward to his team in the year 1994. To create the slimmest watch in the world it needed to be just 3.5mm thick which is as thick as the edge of the floppy disc. In order to achieve this objective the Titan team went to the Swiss who are known as the master of watch making in order to get a deep insight and get help in developing the watch. But to their dismay, the Swiss said that it is impossible. The major reason behind this was that a watch could either be ultra-slim or either it could be water-resistant. The Swiss themselves had made an effort in the year 1982 but they had failed to make the worlds slimmest water-resistant watch. Although they were disappointed but the Titan team took on the challenge and said that if the Swiss could not do it than they would do it. It took them four long years to make a breakthrough innovation and do the impossible by challenging almost all the parameters of watch making. Thus, the slimmest water-resistant in the world wad conceptualized, designed and manufactured not in Switzerland or Japan but was done right here in India. Objectives of the study: The main objective of this study was to understand that how the innovation process was carried out and managed by Titan Watch Industries in order to make the slimmest water-resistant watch in world- Titan Edge. The Titan story is a classic example of an Indian company achieving an amazing feat by making a truly global innovative product successfully. Hence, studying its success story becomes all the more important. Thus, I selected the Titan Edge case study as the topic of my seminar paper wherein I could learn the way the innovation process was managed effectively by Titan and which made it a global player in the field of watch making. The Beginning: It all started way back in 1985 when Titan Watch Industries was set up as a joint venture between the Tata Group and Tamil Nadu Industries Development Corporation. It began with French collaboration from where they got the watch movements and the technology used to develop them. The production of watches began in the year 1987. By the year 1992, Titan started to surpass their French collaborators and started to improve their own creations. At this time Xeres Desai gave a call to develop the slimmest water-resistant watch in order to become a global player by proposing an orbit-shifting challenge to his team. Titan felt the need to make this innovation because they realized that just being the marketing leaders wont help but to earn the respect as the best in the world it was necessary to become the technology leader. In 1994 Desai gave the RD team the challenge of developing the slimmest movement in the world which would 1.15mm thin- as thin as a credit card. The current movement developed by Titan was 3.4mm thick and the challenge was to develop 1.15mm which was a challenging task for the team considering the fact that it was just the second movement which would be developed in-house. Desai further raised the challenge by asking the team to put the movement in the case and create a watch out of it. And in India it needed to be water-resistant as Indians do not prefer to buy watches which are not water-resistant. This was an impossible challenge because till date there was no ultra-slim watch which was water-resistant. The Challenges: There were various challenges which Desai had to face during the development of Titan Edge. The greatest challenges were internal as the mindset of deference to the development world is the key reason which prevents breakthrough innovation in a developing country like India. The various challenges faced during the project were as follows: Challenge 1: Enrolling to the cause While making a radical innovation the biggest challenge is to create self-belief within the team members. The engineering challenge would have been impossible to achieve unless the self-belief and enrolment had not happened. When the team returned from Switzerland without any progress the reaction of the people within the organization was that if the Swiss cannot do it than how can we do it and if Swiss cannot do it than no one can do it. Thus it was this mindset of deference to the developed world which was the major challenge which Desai had to tackle. The watch manufacturing has three main departments which are case manufacture, movement manufacture and assembly. In addition to this even RD department had to been enrolled and energized. The usual response the manufacturing department gives to the design department is that you give us the drawings and we will work according to it. If it works, it works and if does not work than we cannot do anything about it. But once the true alignment had happened at Titan people take ownership for their work and in this case the response from the manufacturing department to the design people was that you provide us with the drawings and we will figure a way out and see to it that things work out properly. Thus, this is how the entire team was motivated and energized in order to enroll them into the cause of making the slimmest water-resistant watch in the world. Challenge 2: The Movement Challenge The team at Titan kicked off with the watch movement in the RD department which was headed by Subramanya Bhatt. During that point of time there were no benchmarks available in the world because the movement of that thickness did not exist. It was a big challenge for the team as they had to make the movement of that thickness from scratch since reengineering was not possible. It was an astronomical challenge in front of the team and it needed a paradigm shift to bring down the size of the movement from 3.4mm to 1.15mm thickness. There were many technological challenges right from the manufacturing department, assembly department and the testing department. The biggest challenge was to accommodate the components in the available space and mainly the battery and the step motor. For this they had to miniaturize the size of the components drastically. The problem with the battery was that reducing the size of the battery would reduce the power of the battery considerably and would thus reduce the power backup considerably. Thus its a trade-off between the size and the power of the battery. You can either have an ultra-slim battery or else you can have a battery with a long-life. Its an either/or challenge but innovation is all about the and. In the initial survey all the usual battery suppliers said that it is impossible to make a battery of this size and it cant be done. But then the team conducted an intense secondary research and was able to find a supplier located in USA who was able to make the battery which was 1.05mm thick and had a backup for a considerably longer time. But still this was not enough because for the watch to be water-resistant the back cover needs to be opened as infrequently as possible. Thus, this needed that the battery should have backup of comparatively a longer battery life. The team had to reduce the power consumption of the battery by half in order to double the battery life. The step motor is the heart of the watch and it is the component which consumes the maximum amount of power. Hence, they had to somehow crash the power consumption of the step motor. For this challenge a silicon chip was developed and simultaneously the step motor was worked on to reduce the consumption of power. The net result was that the life of the battery doubled. There were number of innovations made in terms of tooling, equipment and production facilities in order to create the slimmest movement in the world. Thus, finally the movement of 1.15mm thickness was ready and the next challenge was to make a case around it and which needed to be waterproof. Challenge 3: The Case Challenge After the movement was developed Desai brought in B.V. Nagraj who was the head of the product engineering in order to tackle the challenge of making the case. With the working prototypes of the movement the team members decided to go to Switzerland to the famous Watch Fair in Basel, to meet the Swiss who are considered the master of watch making and ask them to make a waterproof case around the movement. In terms of styling, design, reliability and quality everything is with reference to the Swiss in the watch industry. Even the Titan team believed that the Swiss were the ultimate and they would have the solution to their problem. But to their shock the Swiss were actually surprised that an Indian manufacturer had made the movement. When Titan team members asked them to make a casing of 3.5mm thickness many of them told them that they had gone crazy. Many of the manufacturers took the prototype back to their factories but they came back and said that its not possible. Some of the VPs were quite surprised that an Indian company could even think of something of such a high magnitude. Thus, the team had to return back to India without any progress. The challenges were that the casing had to serve three functions simultaneously. The first one was that it needed to be just 3.5mm in thickness. Secondly, it would have to be water-resistant and lastly it should be good looking in design parameters as well. Thus for this breakthrough was required for the case: the top glass, the back cover and the crown which is the winding key on the side of the watch. The usual thickness of the glass is around 1-1.2 mm but for a watch of 3.5mm thickness the glass would have to be around 0.3mm which is 75 per cent reduction in the thickness. The glass should have the same strength as the standard glass and in addition it should be water-resistant as well. The team met Desai and said that Swiss cannot do it. So Desai asked his famous question to the team that What are you going to do about it? How will you overcome the problem? The team members told him that if the Swiss cannot make it than we will make it. Desai was confident that they will be able to make the case in-hose but the rest of the organization was not. It took some time for the organization to believe that it was possible. If the Swiss cant do it, than we will became the rallying cry. The fact that the Swiss could not make it energized them instead of de-energizing them. The design team had to be convinced and inspired in order to make the case which would be 3.5mm thick and the tolerances would be as thick as a single hair. The case had to look aesthetically pleasing as well. Thus a complete paradigm shift was required in order to design the case for the movement. The next stage was manufacturing. Hari Rao was the chief manufacturing officer and he was very passionate about Indian manufacturing skills. When he was told that the Swiss could not make it, he promptly said that we will make it and took it as a challenge. Getting Hari Rao on board was a simple challenge but getting the general managers of the case manufacturing and assembly was a tough task. Rafique Ahmed the GM of the case manufacturing was a practical kind of a person and he would prefer to maximize the productivity rather than trying something new. It was not east to enroll him but when he was told the fact that even Swiss could not do it struck a chord and he agreed to make the case provided that the design team would crack the glass challenge. The problem with the glass was its thickness. No glass existed at 0.3mm which could withstand the rigors of daily wearing. The solution was found with sapphire glass as it was far sturdier and more reliable than the normal glass. It could be made much thinner and still it would not break. The team located a niche sapphire making glass-company called Steatlar in Switzerland which was able to make the glass of required thickness for the case. Challenge 4: Prototype Challenges There were several challenges faced while making the prototype. The biggest challenge was that the metal was thin on all the sides. Fixing the glass so that the watch would be waterproof was another challenge which the team faced. This was because of the thickness of the case between the glass and the watch needed to be in proportion with the thickness of the entire watch in order to make the watch aesthetically good looking. Drilling the hole for the crown was another challenge because the thickness of metal below the hole was just 0.1mm and hence it kept splitting. Finally the team figured out a way to do both the things. At no point of time reengineering was possible because there were no references available. Everything needed to be innovated like new jigs and new tools in order to make the case. Even the strap was a challenge. Making the strap was also a paradigm shift. The strap needed to be thin enough in order to match the thickness of edge. The strap supplier had never made such a thin strap before but today he thanks Titan because he can sell these ultra-slim straps abroad at premium rates. There were several such challenges to be overcome. And one by one they were. Finally the case was ready and it was given for the final assembly. Assembling the entire watch together was another major challenge. The clearances had come down drastically. Initially for other watches the clearances were around 150 microns but for the Edge the clearances came down to 100 microns. The challenges multiplied with a factor of ten as very fine clearance between the hands caused them to clash with each other and this needed to be tackled too. Finally, the watch began to come together. It wasnt easy for the team to handle the fights and arguments which used to come up due to frustration. There were constant fights due to the tolerances. Everyone wanted to increase the tolerance but then they were explained the significance of Titan Edge and they were told that it is not like any other watch. After all the hard times finally the watch was ready. The Titan team manufactured about fifteen to twenty Edge watches in thirteen different shape variations which were then sent to Switzerland for testing. Testing: The prototypes were sent to Chronofiable SA, Switzerland for testing which is a world renowned independent Horological testing Agency. The watches were subjected to various types of testing such as high temperature test, low temperature test, temperature shock tests, bump tests and drop tests etc. all spread over a period of eight weeks. After all the tests were conducted, the Titan Edge was certified as not only reliable but it was also certified as water-resistant up to 30 meters. The watch was also tested internally at Titan and the interesting thing is the manner in which they were tested by Dwarkanath. He was of the opinion that the agencies can check the watch thoroughly but they cannot replicate the real life conditions. He threw the Edge against a wall, and then threw it in the floor at different angles in order to check whether its safe. He chucks it into the swimming pool in order to check whether it is water-resistant or not. Finally he tied the watch to the shock absorbers of his car and made several trips on the terrible roads between Bangalore and Hosur, covering 200 km in all. The Edge passed these tests too. Conclusion