Pricing decisions as a management strategy

Pricing decisions as a management strategy Supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, price functions to equalise the quantity demanded to the quantity supplied. This results in an economic equilibrium. The Pricing decisions, deciding what to charge the customers may be based on the Marketing or Cost and management accounting. Pricing is one of the most difficult decisions faced by organisations. It is possible for management to foresee a profit squeeze (Horngren, Datar Foster, 2003). Pricing decisions are based on what to charge for the products and services organisations offer. These decisions have major impacts on the revenue an entity earns. This study is focused on pricing decisions as a management strategy. It will then discuss about costing (subset of management accounting) and its influence in pricing. Major changes have occurred in the business world in recent years, including deregulation, privatisation, the growing expectations of share holders and the impact of new technology (Atrill McLaney, 2009). These changes have led towards a fast changing and competitive environment, and this has radically changed the way that entities need to be managed. Managers must approach pricing decisions with care because of the significant impact they can have on the profitability of business (Drury, 2008). Management must approach pricing decisions with care because of the significant impact they can have on the profitability of an entity. Managers consider three main influences on pricing decisions: customers, competitors and costs. Managers tend to see the pricing issues through the customers eyes. Any increase in price may cause customers to reject an entitys product and switch to its competitors. In the current business environment, understanding customers prices and product preferences are a competitive advantage to any entity. Management can price dynamically to respond to demand, to create demand, to reduce waste and to turn over stock immediately. The reactions of competitors influence pricing too. Many companies globally, have established departments to search out information on its competitors financial performance, patents, technology and operating policies (Bhimani, 2008). Most companies price products to exceed the production costs (Alan, 2002). The surveys and case studie s reveal that executives weigh customers, competitors and costs differently. Price taking and price making Most entities need to make decisions about setting or accepting selling prices for their products or services. An entity will have to accept the market price under few circumstances. If there are entities in an industry and there is little to distinguish their product or service from each other then the management needs to consider price taking. Entities in commodity markets can be quoted as examples. Any small entity operating in an industry where there are dominant entities that influence prices then small entities will have to accept those prices. In contrast, if the entity is selling highly customized or differentiated products then they can influence the prices and be a price setter. Time horizons Short run and Long run Pricing decisions have both short run and long run implications. Pricing decisions in short run Short run pricing decisions include pricing for a onetime special offer. This can be an opportunity where an entity will have to bid against its competitors. In such a situation incremental costs of undertaking the order should be taken into account. Product mix could be adjusted where the incremental sales revenue exceeds incremental short run costs and will provide a contribution towards fixed costs. Pricing decisions in long run Long run decisions could include pricing a product in a major market where price setting has considerable leeway. Long run time horizon is mostly of a year or longer. Organisations are supposed to consider the long run implications since they commit their resources for a lengthy period of time. Long run decisions have a profound effect on the firms future position (Drury, 2008). Pricing decisions are more prominent since that is how organisations earn their revenues. Target costing and Life cycle costing are two of the strategies used by organisations in pricing. Target costing is the estimated price for a product or service that potential customers will pay. In other words, firms determine the allowable cost for the product or service, given a competitive market price, so the firm can earn a desired profit (Target cost = Competitive price Desired profit). Firms have two options to cut down costs to the level of target cost. It could be either by redesigning the product or service and or by integrating new manufacturing technology. While once managers focused only on manufacturing costs, they now look at cost upstream (before manufacturing: Research and development and design) and downstream (after manufacturing: marketing, distribution and customer service) in the product life cycle to get a complete analysis of product cost and profitability. Another long term pricing strategy is Life cycle costing. Typically, product or service costs are calculated and reported for shorter periods, such as a month or a year. Unlike the typical strategies Life cycle costing provides a long term perspective.

Reaction Paper on Prejudice and Discrimination Essay

The world that we live in today, although improving, is tainted with cruelty and hatred toward different races. Usually, we have stereotypes about people who are members of groups with which we have not had firsthand contact. We regularly make these stereotypical generalizations based on experiences we have had ourselves, seen in movies or television, read about in books and magazines, or have had related to us by family and friends. Though all these are equally significant roots for the stimulation of stereotypes, media however, is a giant force. When thinking of the topics or behaviors of prejudice and stereotyping, I synonymously think of the movie â€Å"Crash,† which exposes different kinds of social and multicultural differences, giving a quick example of how these conducts can affect a society. These behaviors are viewed as thoughts and feelings that almost everyone has felt more than once. In the first scene of the movie, a Muslim man inside a firearm store is attempting to buy a gun. The owner is a white Caucasian male that presents a negative attitude towards the customer because of his Muslim background. This feeling triggers in the owner, negative attitudes based on the assimilation and stereotypes with the Muslim race. Being immediately associated with the Al Qaeda terrorist group, which was responsible for suicidal bombers that have killed thousand of Americans. This negative attitude and violence observed in this particular scene, is an example of prejudice, known as a negative feeling and predisposition of behavior towards a group or any member belonging to that group. This is an issue not only found in America but in the whole world. In our global economy requiring functional and respectful relationships between nations, prejudice and stereotypes can be a destructive force both in the world and in individual societies, especially in diverse ones. Acting on ones hatred can lead to behavior to what we now in days call â€Å"hate crime†, such as in the scene where they break into the Muslim’s man business and vandalize the place completely. Such acts can lead us to many disgraces even death. This movie shows us the different point of view of people in our society, it gives us an insight of the stereotypes we have build within our society, within the world. It invites us to see and understand how such a small stereotype and negative attitude can go a long way and affect people in different ways. Prejudice is found between gender, religion, cultural, geographical background, and race. People have discriminated against others based upon these attributes. Besides, prejudice is largely a function of ignorance. Today, there are so many different people in this world that stereotypes are almost always incorrect, as many people choose not to be followers, but to be individuals. Asians, African-Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians, and all other ethnic groups need to look past each other’s physical characteristics and start looking inside a person to see who they truly are. After all, personalities do not lie on the outside of one’s body, but in one’s mind. I believe that society needs to raise today’s children to accept all people, no matter what they do or do not believe in or what color skin they may have. In order to reduce prejudice and discrimination, it is considered that education for children is very important. For example, exchange student program that includes not only the one between different countries but also the one between different communities within the same area. If children are raised around people who are not the same as they are in school or community, then they will most likely not think anything different of people who do not look the same as them or believe what they believe. If humanity raises their children to believe all people are equal from the beginning, then prejudice will slowly disintegrate over time. The world needs to focus on not judging people before they know them for who they are. It is very important to let children have opportunity to know the differences and to be interested in differences because ignorance is the biggest source of prejudice.

Social Networking Services Success Essay examples

Various social networking services have achieved enormous success at the first decade of the 21st century. Up to 2010, more than 500 million users globally have been regularly using Facebook (Kirkpatrick, 2010, 2). For this purpose in this essay, social networking site is defined as an online platform where socially related users can communicate and share information with each other, such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Renren. It has long been a question that whether these services brought more benefits than negative effect to the community. Therefore to thoroughly examine the social impacts brought by social networking services, both beneficent and maleficent effects should be discussed. So that there are two points from each side,†¦show more content†¦Moreover, one of the numerous possible reasons that social networking sites can help users create stronger and more extensive bonds with each other, in comparison with traditional e-mail and text services, is that design s upports an astonishingly long diffusion chain where information can pass through (Sun, Rosenn, Marlow Lento, 2009, 146). Sharing of various information, including videos, music and news, seems to be more effective in establishing and maintenance social relationships. It should be noticed that social networking services only work as an interface between its enormous end users. Therefore it could be in the case that user of such services may have a stronger willingness to social with peers before the Facebook accounts were registered. Lack of well controlled definitive study is a major obstacle in analysing patterns in this field even though benefit is more likely to exist than not. Furthermore, online social networking services are potent tools in marketing with both customer and sellers being benefited. As mentioned previously, the rather prevalent information diffusion makes social networks excellent media for transmitting commercial information. Besides, interaction between end-users may further strengthen the efficiency of a campaign. This hypothesis is proved by empirical evidence. For instant, Chuhayhas stated that feedback effects between acquaintances could strengthen the attractiveness of the product being marketed (2010, 55). AnotherShow MoreRelatedSalesforce.com: The Emerging Social Enterprise Essay1690 Words   |  7 PagesWhy did Comcast join public social networks? What difference did it make for Comcast’s business? What might be the benefits for consumer? Comcast: Comcast Corporation is the largest mass media and communications company in the world by revenue. 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Progressivism Progressivism For A Progressive Society

Progressivism in Education: Progressivism for a Progressive Society There are five different philosophies of education that educators can choose from. The philosophies of education are essentialism, perennialism, progressivism, social reconstructionism, and existentialism. A teachers’ philosophy of education defines how they run their classroom, maintain classroom management, and expect their students to learn. For me, I have chosen the philosophy of progressivism. Progressivism is a student centered philosophy. According to Moore (2000), progressivism is a child-centered approach that sees education as a ‘drawing-out’ rather than a putting in of knowledge. Progressives generally run a truly child centered classroom, as compared to an essentialist, who believe in the teacher being the center of the classroom. By teachers adopting the philosophy of progressivism in the classroom; they encourage their students to become intelligent individual problem solvers, hand s on learners and collaborators, and prepare them to be responsible and knowledgeable citizens. Why Progressivism Progressivism, as a philosophy in education, inspires student’s individual creativity, rejects stereotyping, and looks at each student as a unique individual (Moore, 2000). This is a good approach to take in a classroom filled with eager learners. What every child desires in a classroom, first and foremost, is respect. If my students are treated as an individuals, and are recognized for theirShow MoreRelatedEssay on A Progressive Movement1538 Words   |  7 PagesA Progressive Movement Much of a historian’s job is to read what their colleagues have written on their subject of interest at the moment. Often, they then go on to write their own opinions on the subject, thereby influencing the historians of the future. 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Progressives overall did not want to other throwRead MoreProgressivism : A Wide And Varied Movement Essay1332 Words   |  6 PagesProgressivism was a wide and varied movement that changed American values and lifestyles having everlasting impact on American history. Progressivism, ranging from 1880 to 1920, was a well-planned and well-organized movement in the United States having wide as well as diversified goals. Leaders of progressivism movement focused on humanity element and tried to make advancements by promoting liberation to stimulate human force along with exploiting human potential to remove restraints imposed by contemporaryRead MoreProgressivism Philosophy Of Education : Progressivism1566 Words   |  7 PagesProgressivism Philosophy of Education The philosophy of progressivism in the classroom is one that is student centered. Being developed in the nineteenth century, the progressivism philosophy is considered one of the more modern philosophies of teaching. Founded by George Sanders Pierce, William James and John Dewey, this philosophy believes in hands on, action oriented learning to achieve results (Sadovnik, Cookson, Semel, 2013). This philosophy believes that education transpires through questionsRead MoreMiddle Class Dillusionment Essay1472 Words   |  6 PagesProgressivism: Middle Class Disillusionment In 1958, a man named George Mowry explains s economic, social, and political divisions of the progressivism movement. The progressivism movement ties in a lot with our society today and shows how history does indeed repeat itself. Mowry describes the good, and bad of progressivism, but emphasizes the bad. Mowry is really trying to exhibit the differences between capitalism and socialism in his essay and explain why progressivism is not good for theRead MoreThe Progressive And Traditional Forms Of Society1086 Words   |  5 PagesBoth the Progressive and Traditional forms of society have been pivotal and influential in the development and transition of various societies. Specifically, both ideologies were highly substantial in the overall growth and development in a budding society. However, although both ideologies were critical to the overall growth and development of a society, the ideologies were substantially opposing in numerous ways. From the rate of speed for both social a nd technological evolution, how power wasRead MoreThe Progressive Era in America1086 Words   |  4 PagesIn American history, the period between the late 1800s and early 1900s is often called the Progressive Era. 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Abrams also considers the new scientific developments concerning culture and race affected the movementRead MoreEssay about The Pendleton Act 930 Words   |  4 Pages1883, the Pendleton Act establishing a federal civil service gave an end to government patronage. The federal workers were then hired on competitive exams rather than political influence. Government jobs would now be based on merit, calling for a Progressivism Era. The Populist and Socialists soon emerged then declined. Farmers rose to form the Populist Party, which advocated for shorter workdays and government loans to farmers as well as election reforms. Once their party leader lost in the electionRead MoreAdvantages And Disadvantages Of The Progressives1277 Words   |  6 PagesProgressivism, †¦unlike populism, whose grassroots appeal was largely confined to rural regions in the South and Mid-West, focused on the nation altogether, coming in all different forms. (Shi Tindall 778) The movement consisted of moral Christians who disliked politics. They believed that politics, †¦had become a contest between good and evil, honesty and corruption (Shi Tindall 778). Therefore, they believed the government should provide more, addressing the issues dealing with rapid urban