Philosophical Underpinnings - Supply Chain Management Essay

Philosophical Underpinnings - Supply Chain Management - Essay Example The methods of obtaining data will encompass both the qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. Open and closed ended questionnaires will be used in this analysis. The pragmatic consideration will use both aspects. Philosophical claims emanating from the pragmatic consideration and its critique is a major factor that will affect the use of the theories. Ontology to be considered, epistemology and axiology are also important to this research study. Body Several philosophical underpinning research methods can be contained in the research in the supply management efficiency. These methods are considered depending on the extent by which their usefulness will be relevant to the nature of study to be carried out. Ontology is carried out to determine the alternative options available and to be considered. ‘Ontology is a term that refers the list or options that can be considered either in a scientific or philosophical study’ (Williamson, 1993) . The supply chain is the route the product or service goes through from the supplier to the consumer. In some cases this chain is as short as directly from the manufacturer to the consumer but, sometimes it goes through several distributors e.g. retailers before it gets to the consumer. The supply chain is also affected by several factors. ... These research methods apply to the supply chain in different occasions and instances depending on what the researcher is looking at. ‘Epistemology is a method used in analysing data which heavily relies on the type of data obtained during the research. It is popular in the social sciences. Epistemology is a metacognitive learning process assumed in our beliefs but validate other perspectives.’ (Mezirow,1990). The epistemological process is central to critical thinking, it has an effect on race, ideologies power, influence, cosmology, gender and class may be affected. This is when the rationality is in a manner that the issues contained are solved by way of reason (Everline, 1899). There is revolution in the principles of epistemological revolution, and, the sound of reason is usually considered. Studying of cases that had once occurred in trying to deduce the reasons behind their occurrence is also critical in social science. These provide the actual effect of the varia bles on the samples under research (Valentine, 2005). The results from case study get use in solving other problems of similar cases. Open discussion forum in data collection can be useful when the manufacturer is trying to come up with a new product. This method analyses what is required in the market (Lilian, 2006). It helps the manufacturer to tailor the output according to the user needs. Paradigm ‘Paradigm has been used over the centuries to refer to a set of practices that define a scientific discipline at any given time. It is a term that does not have a precise philosophical meaning, but applied in community research to provide solutions to problems’ (Ashley, 2000). Paragmatic consideration entails what is to be scrutinized from

How Brand Awareness Can Gain Competitive Advantage To Companies A Case Dissertation

How Brand Awareness Can Gain Competitive Advantage To Companies A Case Study Of Coca Cola Company In UK - Dissertation Example This dissertation focuses on the Coca-cola company that is a competitive brand and its use of marketing techniques seems to be a bullet proof formula for success. Therefore the intention of this dissertation is to identify exactly how coca-cola uses brand awareness to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. This is extremely important in terms of emerging markets like the technology sector. If companies can identify exactly how to imitate the coca-cola method to brand awareness, then they will be able to capture a leading position within the category. The researcher of this dissertation discusses various aims and objectives of this work, such as: to identify the tactics used by Coca-Cola to maximize its brand awareness, to critically evaluate the methods used by Coca-Cola within the context of the â€Å"22 Immutable Laws of Marketing† by Al Ries and Jack Trout, to Compare and Contrast the methods used by Coca-Cola and Pepsi, to identify other sectors that may benefi t from mimicking Cola’s marketing platform and to identify areas where Coke may be vulnerable. In conclusion, the researcher tries to explore the consumer aptitude regarding the efficacy of Coca-Cola branding campaign. This will help us determine how individuals perceive the brand, where they developed those perceptions, and how likely their perceptions are to change. After analyzing how consumers feel about the brand, the researcher states that he will be able to developed a formula for brand efficiency.

Epistemology of Jean Piaget Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Epistemology of Jean Piaget - Essay Example Piaget proposes that there are three types of knowledge: physical, social, and logical mathematical. According to Piaget, "Intelligence is an adaptationTo say that intelligence is a particular instance of biological adaptation is thus to suppose that it is essentially an organization and that its function is to structure the universe just as the organism structures its immediate environment". "Piaget also called his view constructivism, because he firmly believed that knowledge acquisition is a process of continuous self-construction. That is, Knowledge is not out there, external to the child and waiting to be discovered. But neither is it wholly performed within the child, ready to emerge as the child develops with the world surrounding her...Piaget believed that children actively approach their environments and acquire knowledge through their actions". Piaget declared that he is neither an innatist nor an empiricist. He believes that we always interpret according to our own structu re. Innatists believe that every individual is born with preexisting ideas present in the mind. Empiricists, on the other hand, believe that experience, especially of the senses, are the only sources of knowledge. Piaget argues that for empiricists, knowledge is a copy of objects. But actually, knowledge is always an assimilation or interpretation. In drawing a geometrical shape, the child does not draw what he sees, rather, he draws his idea of it - he draws what he knows of it. To look at it a clearer perspective, the child actually draws his interpretation of the object, and not the exact object itself. Asking a child to draw a diamond shape, showing the child a model of that shape, would give the child an idea of what you want him to do. He may see the diamond shape as a square with some points on it, so he may draw a square with a point in it or with a point beside it. In the light that Piaget believes knowledge is primarily operative, he points out that children who are in the concrete operations stage (seven to eleven years old), and in the formal operations stage (twelve years old and up) constructs their perception of the world through the cognitive development which results from the child's interaction with the environment. The interiorisation of this interaction then forms internal models of reality or "operational structures" which forms the basis of perception upon which the child acts. In the seriation demonstration, four children were asked to arrange a set of rods in order of length. Barbara is 3.5 years old, Renaud is 4 years old, Matthieu, 6.5 years old, and Catherine who is 9 years old. Among the four children, Catherine mastered the seriation structure as she can comprehend the processes of relating, corresponding, ordinal estimation, measurement, and classification. Catherine is at the age wherein she has mastered the nature of coordination. Barbara, on the other hand, being the youngest in the group, at 3.5 years old, she in the stage wherein she is motivated by biological and social impulses, also she has no sense of obligation to rules. She is the one with the poorest seriation structure among the group. Renaud is a few months older than Barbara, and similar results are expected from him regarding the seriation process, but better, as he is more

Playing Dual Roles in Organizations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Playing Dual Roles in Organizations - Essay Example These people were voted on by a review committee and part of the determining factor was that these people were not meeting the standards and objectives that Enron created. Those who did meet the standards often received millions of dollars in bonuses. Therefore, this particular system made it so that employees were rewarded for doing what Enron wanted and punished for when they didn’t. This fostered a dangerous mindset, especially since the company was unethical. Following groups norms is similar to peer pressure in that people are persuaded to do something or behave in a certain way solely because everyone else is doing or behaving in the exact same manner. In this particular documentary, traders followed group norms by being very ruthless. It was noted that due to the competitive atmosphere, people would slit each other’s throats or stomp on each other’s throats in order to get to the top. Additionally, one trader said that he did not ask questions about the unethical practices because nobody else was. Both examples illustrate an overall acceptance of values and standards due to the fact that â€Å"everyone was doing it† or was commonplace behavior. Andrew Fastow who was the CFO of Enron was assigned the role of being in charge of the money and financial aspects of Enron. The movie discusses how Fastow essentially lied to investors by convincing them to put money into the company without really receiving anything of actual value in return. He kept Enron afloat by creating a variety of bogus companies and having investors such as banks place money on them. Additionally, he skimmed money off the top of these accounts to the tune of $45 million. Fastow’s role as CFO gave him access to a lot of money and power. It appears that he was set up as a fall guy in a way since a lot of the crime had to do with the accounting aspect of the business which Fastow was largely in charge of. It can either be said that the role of CFO corrupted Fastow and he perpetrated fraud as a means of fulfilling his greed.