Strategies for Service Quality

Strategies for Service Quality Literature Review Chapter One: An overview of Service Quality 1.0 Introduction Nowadays, service quality strategy is an important weapon used to gain a competitive advantage over competitors. This chapter starts by defining quality, services and service quality. Some essential elements such as the expectations of service, importance of service quality and its benefits are also being highlighted. It further stresses the need for handling customer complaints and underlines the role of service failure and recovery. 1.2 Meanings of Quality Quality is constantly evolving depending on its application techniques used. Quality is a term that is heard almost everywhere nowadays, from top management business to the small corner shop on the local street to the stall selling fruits in the market. Quality is perceived as a subjective term which means different things to different people in different situations. According to Joseph M. Juran (1988), quality is defined as â€Å"fitness for purpose†. Deming W. Edwards (1982), another quality guru, described quality as being â€Å"a predictable degree of uniformity and dependability at low cost and suited to the market†. However, â€Å"Delighting the customer by fully meeting their needs and expectations† is a more common definition of quality. Other definitions of quality are listed below: â€Å"Quality is a conformance to requirement† (Philip Crosby, 1979) â€Å"Quality is the customers opinion† (Armand V Feigenbaum, 2004) â€Å"Quality is the extent to which the customer or users believe the product or service surpasses their needs and expectations† (Gitlow et al. , 1989) The different definitions of â€Å"quality† given above are not stating the same thing. Thus, it is possible that one business concentrates on quality to meet a specified requirement, but this may not satisfy the customers expectations. Also, it is possible for a product to be of a degree of excellence but may not fit for purpose, that is, the definition underlined by Joseph Juran. Simply expressed, all gurus of quality dance around the definition of quality but none of these definitions stated above is a complete statement of what is meant by quality. 1.3 Importance of Quality The concept of quality is currently so widely used by organisations that it is no longer just an advantage to adopt it but a must for survival. Increased globalisation leads to increased competitive pressures. Therefore, businesses are forced to do their best to be more efficient, more up-to-date with the changing technologies and at the same time to be responsive to the markets. Dale (2003) stresses the importance of quality in that it increases productivity, followed by enhanced performance in the marketplace and improves overall business performance. According to Armand Feigenbaum (2004), quality is considered to be the single most important force resulting in organisational success and growth in both national and international markets. Competition nowadays is fiercer as existing competitors need to improve their offerings while new and low cost competitors emerge in the marketplace (Dale, 2003). Consequently, businesses are required to understand the great significance of quality and try to indulge in continuous and sustainable quality improvements in order to survive. Quality is a key aspect that plays a great role for both goods and services providing enterprises. More specifically, quality and its management have turned out to be progressively significant in pursuing business excellence, superior performance and market supremacy. But why quality in service? This is because organisations face challenges such as meeting customer requirements while remaining economically competitive. Services are labour intensive even today. There is not any substitute for high quality personal interaction between service employees and customers. Thus, quality practices need to be implemented by the service enterprises to identify problems quickly and systematically, establish valid and reliable service performance measures and measure customer satisfaction. 1.4 Services The new catch-all word â€Å"services† is making its rounds in the industry in the last decade. Indeed, the role of services in the world economy has increased considerably within the last ten years, particularly in developed nations. According to Jiang and Rosenbloom (2005), the shifting of the economy in industrialised countries from goods to services is considered to be one of the most essential long-term trends in the business world today. In fact, the service sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the USA nowadays, accounting for over 75% of the increase in the GNP (Gross National Product) in the last decade. Regan (1963) brought in the idea of services being â€Å"activities, benefits or satisfactions which are offered for sale, or are provided in connection with the sale of goods†. As human beings, we consume services in our everyday life such as switching on the television, talking on mobile phones and using emails. Economies of the world are becoming more and more services based. Some activities such as banking, construction, tourism, accounting and hairdressing can be easily identified. Organisation goals can be achieved by knowing the needs and wants of target markets and thus delivering the appropriate and desired service better than competitors. According to Zeithaml et al. (1990), customers are considered to be the only judge of service. However, it is often difficult for customers to predict satisfaction and evaluate service prior to purchase and consumption and hence, they are more likely to look for information before purchasing services than goods This may be mostly due to the fact that services, in contrast to goods, are commonly said to derive from the four characteristics namely intangibility, heterogeneity, perishability and inseparability. However, some authors have argued that services are not fundamentally different from goods and have also reported that no pure goods or services exist in todays marketplace (McDougall et al. , 1990; cited by Stell et al. , 1996). This stream of thought puts forward that the service/good dichotomy is such that consumers can purchase either a good or service to fulfill their needs. For instance, when consumers need to have their documents copied, they may buy a personal copy machine (a good) or go to a copy center (a service). In these circumstances, services may compete directly with goods (Dholakia and Venkatraman, 1993). So, instead of identifying differences, marketing strategy should be based on the similarities between services and physical goods in relation to the characteristics of the total market offering. 1.4.1 Services in Retail Industry Organisations must be able to identify their most important customers and prospect and at the same time integrating customer insights and powerful analytics into retail decision-making. Thus, this can drive high performance throughout the business. Evidence suggests that services business customers tend to remain with the same service provider if they are continually and continuously satisfied (Hong and Goo, 2004). The building and maintenance of such relationships can attain better financial performance, customer trust, commitment and satisfaction (Hsieh et al, 2002). In order to achieve high performance in the retail industry, there are several attributes that retailers should strive towards to guarantee success and outperform their competitors. They have to excel in areas such as being customer focus, being continuously innovative, establishing a performance-oriented culture and improving the distribution channel. All these add a new dimension of competition. 1.5 Definition of Service Quality Service quality has drawn attention of researchers in recent decades (Zeithaml, 2000). Nevertheless, since there is not a universally accepted definition for service quality, many different meanings exist. For instance, Czepiel (1990) portrays service quality as customers perception of how well a service meets or exceeds their expectations whereas Bitner, Booms and Mohr (1994, p. 97) define service quality as â€Å"the consumers overall impression of the relative inferiority or superiority of the organisation and its services†. Zeithaml et al. (1996) depict service quality as â€Å"the delivery of excellent or superior service relative to customer expectations†. While other researchers (for example, Cronin and Taylor, 1994) view service quality as a form of attitude representing a long-run evaluation in general, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, p. 48) define service quality as â€Å"a function of the differences between expectation and performance along the quality dimensions†. Indeed, this has appeared to be consistent with Roest and Pieters (1997) definition that service quality is a relativistic and cognitive discrepancy between experience-based norms and performances concerning service benefits. As for Gronroos (1983), service quality is viewed as the accomplishment of customers expectations whereas Parasuraman et al. (1985) define it as the gap between customers expectations, in terms of service, and their perception developed by the actual service experience. That is, service quality is an attitude that results from the comparison of expected service levels with perceived performance. Furthermore, Parasuraman et al. (1985) have reported that outstanding service is a profitable strategy as it results in more new customers, fewer lost customers, more business with existing customers, more insulation from price competition and fewer mistakes requiring the re-performance of services. Accordingly, by offering superior service quality, a firm is liable to become more profitable and at the same time to sustain a competitive edge in their served markets. Evidently, superior service quality is a strategic weapon aiming to attract more customers. Lassar et al. (2000) believe that service quality is a significant sign of customer satisfaction and thus delivering superior service quality is a strategy that eventually leads to success. 1.5.1 Service Quality in Retailing With the rapid development in the retail industry nowadays, understanding of retail service quality and identifying determinants of retail service quality has become strategic importance for retailers. By satisfying customers through high quality service, firms not only retain their current customers, but at the same time, their market share also increases. (Finn and Lamb, 1991; cited by Nguyen, 2007) According to numerous marking researchers (for example, Berry, 1986; Reichheld Sasser, 1990; Dabholkar et al., 1996; NcGoldrick, 2002), the offer and supply of high quality service is often perceived to be of fundamental importance in retailing. In the retail context, when customers evaluate retail service, they compare their perceptions of the service they receive with that of their expectations. Customers are seemed to be satisfied only when the perceived service meets or even exceeds their expectations. However, they are dissatisfied when they feel that the service falls below their expectations (Levy and Weitz, 2005). To date, Parasuraman et al. (1988) believe that many studies on service quality relied on service quality construct and scale. Nevertheless, Kaul (2005) and Dabholkar et al. (1996) argue that this application to the retail industry may not be appropriate for service quality in retailing industry as the latter seems to be different from other services. In retail setting, where there is a mix of product and service, retailers are prone to have impact on service quality more than on product quality (Dabholkar et al. , 1996). Hence, since retailers can create such effects, service quality plays a significant strategic role in creating quality perceptions. 1.6 Customer Expectations of Service According to Parasuraman et al (1993), understanding customer expectations is a must for delivering superior and value-added service. Customers have the tendency to compare their perceptions with that of expectations when judging a service. They are satisfied only when the service they have received is the same or exceeds what they expected. Lewis (1991) define expectations as the desires or wants of consumers and what they believe a product or service should offer, which are formed on the basis of previous experience with a company, its competitors and the marketing mix inputs. Thus, identifying what a customer expects is the prime step in delivering high quality of customer service. 1.6.1 Determinants of Customer Expectations of service Berry and Parasuraman (1993) have developed a complete model of customer expectations and have given their opinions through two levels namely desired and adequate expectations and the zone of tolerance in the middle which separates them (refer to Figure 1.3). This model shows the different factors that affect these three features. Desired service is that level of service which a customer expects to receive from a service firm. In fact, it is a blend of what the customer considers ‘can be and ‘should be. It is believed to result from six sources namely, enduring service intensifiers, personal needs, explicit service promises, implicit service promises, word-of-mouth and past experience. Conversely, adequate service level is related to which the customer finds acceptable. It is based on the customers appraisal of what the service ‘will be. It is influenced by five factors such as transitory service intensifiers, perceived service alternatives, customer self-perceived service role, situational factors and predicted service. Berry and Parasuraman (1993) describe a tolerance zone as â€Å"a range of service performance that a customer considers satisfactory†. This concept assumes that customers have expectations of a service attribute on the two given levels which have been discussed above. If the real experiences of a customer fall in the zone of tolerance, then the perceived quality is regarded as good. Understanding the different sources of customer expectations can therefore help managers to perceive correctly what their customers want and expect. They can then put emphasis on the services elements that they can control and deliver the services they have promised. Hence, this model can serve as a valuable diagnostic tool to boost up the overall level of perceived service quality (Kettinger and Lee, 2005).Yet, one of the perplexing issues confronting service businesses is how to measure quality service perceptions of existing and potential customers since many of these factors are uncontrollable and also expectations differ from customer to customer and, possibly, from one situation to the next for the same customer (Young et al. , 1994). Why is Service Quality Important? Across all service industries, service quality remains a critical issue as businesses strive to maintain a comparative advantage over their competitors in the marketplace (Kandampully et al., 1999). As a result, the environment of service organisations is more and more competitive. Ghobatian et al. (1994) point out that â€Å"customers are the lifeblood of any business† and â€Å"service quality can be the means to win and keep customers†. Actually, in todays aggressive environment, the pursuit of service quality is believed to be the most important strategic weapon in achieving a sustainable differential advantage within the global marketplace (Devlin et al., 2000). More importantly, it is conceded that companies that excel in high quality service as perceived by their customers, tend to be the most profitable ones. On the other hand, poor service has been classified as the prime cause for customers switching to competitors (Ghobatian et al., 1994). It is often observed that organisations providing a sophisticated level of service, try to go beyond just satisfying their customers. â€Å"They emphasise the need to ‘delight them by providing them more than what is required. They also now talk about winning customers† (Dale, 2003). The latter highlights some customer service facts and indicates why service quality is crucial for a firm. (See Appendix A) While focusing on the increased importance of service quality, it is also essential to assess the related benefits and costs. Lewis (1991) has underlined some benefits when adopting a quality service strategy such as customer satisfaction and customer retention, loyalty, expanded market share, enhanced firms reputation, improvement in employee morale, low staff turnover, increased productivity, less mistakes, lower costs, high revenues, increased financial performance, high revenues and positive word-of-mouth. On the other hand, Crosby (1979) has identified the costs of poor quality which are related due to lack of responsiveness to customers, low morale of employees, dissatisfied customers and unfavorable word-of-mouth communication. Hence, it is important for businesses to clearly anticipate that service quality is the basic prerequisite for continuous success. 1.7 Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction In a competitive business environment where organisations compete for customers, customer satisfaction is perceived as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a primary element of business strategy (Carl D. McDaniel, 2005). Customers are the foremost decision makers in any marketing effort. They opt for a service offering that adds value to them and optimises their satisfaction. Many researchers such as Brady and Robertson (2001) and Lovelock, Patterson and Walker (2001) conceptualise customer satisfaction as an individuals feeling of pleasure or disappointment resulting from judging against a products perceived performance with respect to his or her expectations. But, Westbrook and Oliver (1981) make use of the confirmation-disconfirmation theory to better explain the meaning of customer satisfaction. This paradigm states that customers assess their levels of satisfaction by comparing their actual experiences with that of their previous experiences, expectations, and perceptions of the products performance. Parasuraman et al. (1994) mention that customer satisfaction is a key consequence of service quality and thus, it can determine the long term success of a service organisation. In the same vein, Oliver (1980) points out that customer satisfaction is affected by customer expectation or anticipation prior to obtaining a service and can be approximated by the following equation: Customer Satisfaction = â‚ ¬Ã‚  Perception of Performance Expectations Based on the above equation, Parasuraman et al. (1994) devise that a service provider can boost up overall customer satisfaction by either improving customer perceptions of a service or by lowering their expectations of it. If a service firm fails to respect this equation, then, this may dissatisfy the customer at the time and, in turn, will result in his or her switching to alternative service firms (McCollough, Berry, and Yadav, 2000; Roos, 1999). Thus, this equation is a valuable tool and a clear reminder that both factors, perceptions and expectations of customer satisfaction need to be managed and controlled by the service provider. An analysis of the literature on the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality has received a widely held view among researches. Caruana and Malta (2002) point out by mentioning that service quality is an important input to customer satisfaction. Zeithaml et al. (1996) share the same line of thought by suggesting that a customers relationship with a company is strengthened when that customer makes a positive appraisal about the companys service quality and is weakened when a customer makes negative assessments about the companys service quality. They argue that favourable assessment of service quality will result in favourable behavioral intentions like â€Å"praise for the company† and expressions of preference for the company over other companies. Thus, implying that there is a positive relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. However, the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality has been criticised for not being inter-related by many researches. For instance, Iacobucci et al. (1995) identify that the vast majority of articles attempting to scrutinise this inter-relationship have been of a non-empirical nature. Similarly, Anderson and Fornell (1994) point out that the literature is not very clear about the distinction between quality and satisfaction. Satisfaction is a â€Å"post consumption† experience which judges perceived quality against expected quality, whereas service quality refers to a global evaluation of an organisations service delivery system (Anderson and Fornell, 1994; Parasuraman et al., 1985). Hence, Dabholkar et al. (2000) suggest that it is recommended that customer satisfaction should be measured separately from service quality so as to understand how customers evaluate service performance. 1.8 Service Quality and Customer trust The trust that customers have in service organisations is an important concern for customer relationship managers. Existing research has accentuated the significance of trust and its implications for driving profitable and long-lasting customer relationships (Garbarino and Johnson, 1999; Morgan and Hunt, 1999). Practitioners and researchers have repeatedly emphasised the importance of service quality which enable firms to build stable and trusting relationships with customers (Grà ¶nroos, 1983; Rust, Moorman, and Dickson, 2002; Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman, 1996). Recent evidence highlights that there exists a positive relationship between service quality and trust (Chiou and Droge, 2006; Sharma and Patterson, 1999). To reinforce this notion, a firm that consistently meets or exceeds the expectations of customers will cultivate more trusting relationships with its customers. The courteous, caring, and responsive employee behaviours that are characteristic of service quality will inspire confidence in customers, particularly in retail outlets and thus will introduce a sense of trust for the retail store in customers (Weisinger, 1998). These related factors of service quality eventually contribute to the development of trust, and trust starts to develop as the customers experience positive service interactions and obtain benefits from this personal interaction. Consequently, the higher the service quality, the stronger is customer trust in an organisation. 1.9 Service Quality and Customer Loyalty The main aim of leading service organisations is to maintain a superior quality of service in an effort to gain customer loyalty. Coupled with this, Zeithaml (1996) believes that a service firms long term success in a market is essentially determined by its ability to expand and maintain a large and loyal customer base. Buttle and Burton (2002) simply describe customer loyalty as â€Å"a customer who continues to buy is a loyal customer†. Boulding et al. (1993) find that there is a positive relationship between service quality and customer loyalty, that is, customers having the repurchase intentions and the willingness to recommend. Sharing the same line of thought, Zeithaml et al. (1990) also report a positive relationship, thereby, customers willingly pay a price premium and intend to remain loyal in case of a price increase. However, Johnson et al. (2001) point out that this positive relationship varies between products, industries, and situations. On the other hand, some researchers argue that it has remained unclear whether or not there is a direct relationship between service quality and loyalty. In the study done by Cronin and Taylor (1992), service quality did not appear to have a significant or positive effect on customer loyalty. Similarly, Bloemer et al. (1999) mention that this relationship has remained relatively underdeveloped. 1.10 Handling customer complaints The phenomenon of customer complaints is considered as an area of great significance for businesses, particularly where organisations are increasingly recognising the value of pursuing long-term relationships with customers. Tax and Brown (1998) identify that only 5-10% of customers who are dissatisfied actually complain. Hence, it is imperative for organisations to encourage their customers to voice their dissatisfaction by providing communication facilities such as customer service desks. However, Blancero and Johnson (2001) argue that customer complaints could result in negative reactions from employees, which may in turn reduce service quality. But complaints can have a positive impact as well. It is an excellent opportunity for an organisation when receiving complaints in order to restore customer confidence and to capitalise on this feedback for helping in organisational improvements (Johnston, 2001; Ramsey, 2003). When focusing on handling customer complaints, it should include adequacy or fairness of the outcome, access to the organisation contact points, friendliness, empathy, active feedback, and speed of response (Stauss, 2002). 1.11 Service Failure and Recovery The retail industry involves a high degree of interaction between employees and consumers and as a result, provides many opportunities for service failures to crop up. According to Michel (2001), service failures include those circumstances when a service fails to live up to the customers expectations. Some consequences of service failures are dissatisfaction, negative word-of-mouth (Mattila, 2001), decrease in customer confidence and a decline in employee morale and performance (Boshoff and Leong, 1998). When service failure occurs, then service providers have to take actions to recover which gives rise to service recovery. Miller et al. (2000) describe service recovery as the actions takes to problems, change negative attitudes of dissatisfied customers and to ultimately retain these customers. Examples of recovery efforts consist of price discounts, improved services, refunds, free products or services, apologies, and acknowledgment of the problem (Kelley et al. , 1993). 1.12 Summary of the Literature Review This chapter has provided a general idea on service quality. It has started by providing an overview of services and quality with emphasis in the retailing industry. In addition, customer expectations, customer trust, loyalty and customer satisfaction have also been discussed. Undoubtedly, in the service quality literature, service quality is proven to provide many benefits to organisations. Literature Review Chapter Two: Related Concepts of Service Quality 2.0 Introduction In this chapter, service quality and its related concepts have been explored. They are as follows: The dimensions of service quality including SERVQUAL, Gap analysis, the three dimensions of Lehtinen and Lehtinen and the Perceived service quality model. Besides, the difficulties in measuring service quality as well as a critical review of the concept of service quality have also been identified 2.1 Dimensions of Service Quality Service quality is not a singular but rather it is a multidimensional phenomenon (Ghobatian et al, 1993). Without doubt, the identification of the quality dimensions to measure is of fundamental necessity as customers base their views about service on these dimensions (Kunst and Lemmink, 1996). Various writers and researchers have suggested a number of dimensions of service quality. For instance, Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) identify three dimensions for service quality which are physical quality (tangible aspects of service), corporate quality (company image and reputation) and interactive quality (two-way flow between customers and personnel). They also argue that it is important to differentiate between the output quality of service and the quality associated with the process of service delivery. Indeed, service quality is being perceived as a multidimensional concept. Grà ¶nroos (1984) point out that service quality comprises of three global dimensions: The technical quality which refers to what is delivered or what the customer gets from the service. For example, for a retail store, technical quality may consist of the range of products offered and the availability of parking space. The functional quality, that is, the way in which the service is delivered or how it is delivered. For example, customers of a retail store will assess whether the salespersons are friendly or whether products are easily returnable. The corporate image has to do with how consumers perceive the firm and is built by mainly both technical and functional quality and to some extent other factors such as the traditional marketing activities (pricing, advertising). Unlike Grà ¶nroos (1984) who uses the global measure of service quality, Parasuraman et al. (1985) argue that the criteria used by consumers to evaluate service quality fits ten dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, access, tangibles and understanding/knowing the customer. Later, after having carried out successive research, analysis and testing, Parasuraman et al. (1988) refine the dimensions into only five dimensions namely: Tangibles: the appearance of physical facilities, personnel, communication materials and condition of equipment. Reliability: the ability to perform the promised service on time dependably and accurately. Responsiveness: the willingness to help customers, to deal effectively with complaints and provide prompt service. Assurance: the employees knowledge and courtesy and their ability to convey trust and confidence. Empathy: The level of caring, individualised attention provided to the customers. 2.1.1 SERVQUAL Model Based on these five dimensions above, the SERVQUAL instrument has been developed. This particular instrument which is originally developed by A. Parasuraman, Valarie A. Zeithaml and L.L. Berry in 1988, measures service quality through customer opinions. They point out that SERVQUAL essentially comprises of two sections. The first section basically questions customers expectations, while the second part measures customers perceptions. The gap between the expected service and perceived service is measured using the SERVQUAL together with its five underlying dimensions of service quality (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy). The SERVQUAL incorporates 22 items in each of the two sections which are sub-items of the predefined five dimensions (refer to Appendix B). According to Zeithaml et al. (2006), SERVQUAL has been creatively used in multiple service contexts. Indeed, Parasuraman et al. (1988) suggest that the instrument is applicable across a wide variety of services. In the same line, Getz et al. (2001) put forward that SERVQUAL has been broadly used in a variety of service industries. They also point out that it is a helpful tool comprising of potential applications in assessing effectively consumers expectations and perceptions of service quality. Despite the fact that SERVQUAL is the most well known instrument for service quality, it has been criticised from several researchers. Cronin and Taylor (1992) claim that there are deficiencies in both the conceptualisation and operationalisation of service quality in the SERVQUAL model. Buttle (1996) criticises on the dimensionality of the SERVQUAL scale, especially to the number of dimensions and their stability from contexts to contexts. He also states that the dimensions are not universal. Following the same line of thought, Bahia and Nantel (2000) declare that this model emphas Strategies for Service Quality Strategies for Service Quality Literature Review Chapter One: An overview of Service Quality 1.0 Introduction Nowadays, service quality strategy is an important weapon used to gain a competitive advantage over competitors. This chapter starts by defining quality, services and service quality. Some essential elements such as the expectations of service, importance of service quality and its benefits are also being highlighted. It further stresses the need for handling customer complaints and underlines the role of service failure and recovery. 1.2 Meanings of Quality Quality is constantly evolving depending on its application techniques used. Quality is a term that is heard almost everywhere nowadays, from top management business to the small corner shop on the local street to the stall selling fruits in the market. Quality is perceived as a subjective term which means different things to different people in different situations. According to Joseph M. Juran (1988), quality is defined as â€Å"fitness for purpose†. Deming W. Edwards (1982), another quality guru, described quality as being â€Å"a predictable degree of uniformity and dependability at low cost and suited to the market†. However, â€Å"Delighting the customer by fully meeting their needs and expectations† is a more common definition of quality. Other definitions of quality are listed below: â€Å"Quality is a conformance to requirement† (Philip Crosby, 1979) â€Å"Quality is the customers opinion† (Armand V Feigenbaum, 2004) â€Å"Quality is the extent to which the customer or users believe the product or service surpasses their needs and expectations† (Gitlow et al. , 1989) The different definitions of â€Å"quality† given above are not stating the same thing. Thus, it is possible that one business concentrates on quality to meet a specified requirement, but this may not satisfy the customers expectations. Also, it is possible for a product to be of a degree of excellence but may not fit for purpose, that is, the definition underlined by Joseph Juran. Simply expressed, all gurus of quality dance around the definition of quality but none of these definitions stated above is a complete statement of what is meant by quality. 1.3 Importance of Quality The concept of quality is currently so widely used by organisations that it is no longer just an advantage to adopt it but a must for survival. Increased globalisation leads to increased competitive pressures. Therefore, businesses are forced to do their best to be more efficient, more up-to-date with the changing technologies and at the same time to be responsive to the markets. Dale (2003) stresses the importance of quality in that it increases productivity, followed by enhanced performance in the marketplace and improves overall business performance. According to Armand Feigenbaum (2004), quality is considered to be the single most important force resulting in organisational success and growth in both national and international markets. Competition nowadays is fiercer as existing competitors need to improve their offerings while new and low cost competitors emerge in the marketplace (Dale, 2003). Consequently, businesses are required to understand the great significance of quality and try to indulge in continuous and sustainable quality improvements in order to survive. Quality is a key aspect that plays a great role for both goods and services providing enterprises. More specifically, quality and its management have turned out to be progressively significant in pursuing business excellence, superior performance and market supremacy. But why quality in service? This is because organisations face challenges such as meeting customer requirements while remaining economically competitive. Services are labour intensive even today. There is not any substitute for high quality personal interaction between service employees and customers. Thus, quality practices need to be implemented by the service enterprises to identify problems quickly and systematically, establish valid and reliable service performance measures and measure customer satisfaction. 1.4 Services The new catch-all word â€Å"services† is making its rounds in the industry in the last decade. Indeed, the role of services in the world economy has increased considerably within the last ten years, particularly in developed nations. According to Jiang and Rosenbloom (2005), the shifting of the economy in industrialised countries from goods to services is considered to be one of the most essential long-term trends in the business world today. In fact, the service sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the USA nowadays, accounting for over 75% of the increase in the GNP (Gross National Product) in the last decade. Regan (1963) brought in the idea of services being â€Å"activities, benefits or satisfactions which are offered for sale, or are provided in connection with the sale of goods†. As human beings, we consume services in our everyday life such as switching on the television, talking on mobile phones and using emails. Economies of the world are becoming more and more services based. Some activities such as banking, construction, tourism, accounting and hairdressing can be easily identified. Organisation goals can be achieved by knowing the needs and wants of target markets and thus delivering the appropriate and desired service better than competitors. According to Zeithaml et al. (1990), customers are considered to be the only judge of service. However, it is often difficult for customers to predict satisfaction and evaluate service prior to purchase and consumption and hence, they are more likely to look for information before purchasing services than goods This may be mostly due to the fact that services, in contrast to goods, are commonly said to derive from the four characteristics namely intangibility, heterogeneity, perishability and inseparability. However, some authors have argued that services are not fundamentally different from goods and have also reported that no pure goods or services exist in todays marketplace (McDougall et al. , 1990; cited by Stell et al. , 1996). This stream of thought puts forward that the service/good dichotomy is such that consumers can purchase either a good or service to fulfill their needs. For instance, when consumers need to have their documents copied, they may buy a personal copy machine (a good) or go to a copy center (a service). In these circumstances, services may compete directly with goods (Dholakia and Venkatraman, 1993). So, instead of identifying differences, marketing strategy should be based on the similarities between services and physical goods in relation to the characteristics of the total market offering. 1.4.1 Services in Retail Industry Organisations must be able to identify their most important customers and prospect and at the same time integrating customer insights and powerful analytics into retail decision-making. Thus, this can drive high performance throughout the business. Evidence suggests that services business customers tend to remain with the same service provider if they are continually and continuously satisfied (Hong and Goo, 2004). The building and maintenance of such relationships can attain better financial performance, customer trust, commitment and satisfaction (Hsieh et al, 2002). In order to achieve high performance in the retail industry, there are several attributes that retailers should strive towards to guarantee success and outperform their competitors. They have to excel in areas such as being customer focus, being continuously innovative, establishing a performance-oriented culture and improving the distribution channel. All these add a new dimension of competition. 1.5 Definition of Service Quality Service quality has drawn attention of researchers in recent decades (Zeithaml, 2000). Nevertheless, since there is not a universally accepted definition for service quality, many different meanings exist. For instance, Czepiel (1990) portrays service quality as customers perception of how well a service meets or exceeds their expectations whereas Bitner, Booms and Mohr (1994, p. 97) define service quality as â€Å"the consumers overall impression of the relative inferiority or superiority of the organisation and its services†. Zeithaml et al. (1996) depict service quality as â€Å"the delivery of excellent or superior service relative to customer expectations†. While other researchers (for example, Cronin and Taylor, 1994) view service quality as a form of attitude representing a long-run evaluation in general, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, p. 48) define service quality as â€Å"a function of the differences between expectation and performance along the quality dimensions†. Indeed, this has appeared to be consistent with Roest and Pieters (1997) definition that service quality is a relativistic and cognitive discrepancy between experience-based norms and performances concerning service benefits. As for Gronroos (1983), service quality is viewed as the accomplishment of customers expectations whereas Parasuraman et al. (1985) define it as the gap between customers expectations, in terms of service, and their perception developed by the actual service experience. That is, service quality is an attitude that results from the comparison of expected service levels with perceived performance. Furthermore, Parasuraman et al. (1985) have reported that outstanding service is a profitable strategy as it results in more new customers, fewer lost customers, more business with existing customers, more insulation from price competition and fewer mistakes requiring the re-performance of services. Accordingly, by offering superior service quality, a firm is liable to become more profitable and at the same time to sustain a competitive edge in their served markets. Evidently, superior service quality is a strategic weapon aiming to attract more customers. Lassar et al. (2000) believe that service quality is a significant sign of customer satisfaction and thus delivering superior service quality is a strategy that eventually leads to success. 1.5.1 Service Quality in Retailing With the rapid development in the retail industry nowadays, understanding of retail service quality and identifying determinants of retail service quality has become strategic importance for retailers. By satisfying customers through high quality service, firms not only retain their current customers, but at the same time, their market share also increases. (Finn and Lamb, 1991; cited by Nguyen, 2007) According to numerous marking researchers (for example, Berry, 1986; Reichheld Sasser, 1990; Dabholkar et al., 1996; NcGoldrick, 2002), the offer and supply of high quality service is often perceived to be of fundamental importance in retailing. In the retail context, when customers evaluate retail service, they compare their perceptions of the service they receive with that of their expectations. Customers are seemed to be satisfied only when the perceived service meets or even exceeds their expectations. However, they are dissatisfied when they feel that the service falls below their expectations (Levy and Weitz, 2005). To date, Parasuraman et al. (1988) believe that many studies on service quality relied on service quality construct and scale. Nevertheless, Kaul (2005) and Dabholkar et al. (1996) argue that this application to the retail industry may not be appropriate for service quality in retailing industry as the latter seems to be different from other services. In retail setting, where there is a mix of product and service, retailers are prone to have impact on service quality more than on product quality (Dabholkar et al. , 1996). Hence, since retailers can create such effects, service quality plays a significant strategic role in creating quality perceptions. 1.6 Customer Expectations of Service According to Parasuraman et al (1993), understanding customer expectations is a must for delivering superior and value-added service. Customers have the tendency to compare their perceptions with that of expectations when judging a service. They are satisfied only when the service they have received is the same or exceeds what they expected. Lewis (1991) define expectations as the desires or wants of consumers and what they believe a product or service should offer, which are formed on the basis of previous experience with a company, its competitors and the marketing mix inputs. Thus, identifying what a customer expects is the prime step in delivering high quality of customer service. 1.6.1 Determinants of Customer Expectations of service Berry and Parasuraman (1993) have developed a complete model of customer expectations and have given their opinions through two levels namely desired and adequate expectations and the zone of tolerance in the middle which separates them (refer to Figure 1.3). This model shows the different factors that affect these three features. Desired service is that level of service which a customer expects to receive from a service firm. In fact, it is a blend of what the customer considers ‘can be and ‘should be. It is believed to result from six sources namely, enduring service intensifiers, personal needs, explicit service promises, implicit service promises, word-of-mouth and past experience. Conversely, adequate service level is related to which the customer finds acceptable. It is based on the customers appraisal of what the service ‘will be. It is influenced by five factors such as transitory service intensifiers, perceived service alternatives, customer self-perceived service role, situational factors and predicted service. Berry and Parasuraman (1993) describe a tolerance zone as â€Å"a range of service performance that a customer considers satisfactory†. This concept assumes that customers have expectations of a service attribute on the two given levels which have been discussed above. If the real experiences of a customer fall in the zone of tolerance, then the perceived quality is regarded as good. Understanding the different sources of customer expectations can therefore help managers to perceive correctly what their customers want and expect. They can then put emphasis on the services elements that they can control and deliver the services they have promised. Hence, this model can serve as a valuable diagnostic tool to boost up the overall level of perceived service quality (Kettinger and Lee, 2005).Yet, one of the perplexing issues confronting service businesses is how to measure quality service perceptions of existing and potential customers since many of these factors are uncontrollable and also expectations differ from customer to customer and, possibly, from one situation to the next for the same customer (Young et al. , 1994). Why is Service Quality Important? Across all service industries, service quality remains a critical issue as businesses strive to maintain a comparative advantage over their competitors in the marketplace (Kandampully et al., 1999). As a result, the environment of service organisations is more and more competitive. Ghobatian et al. (1994) point out that â€Å"customers are the lifeblood of any business† and â€Å"service quality can be the means to win and keep customers†. Actually, in todays aggressive environment, the pursuit of service quality is believed to be the most important strategic weapon in achieving a sustainable differential advantage within the global marketplace (Devlin et al., 2000). More importantly, it is conceded that companies that excel in high quality service as perceived by their customers, tend to be the most profitable ones. On the other hand, poor service has been classified as the prime cause for customers switching to competitors (Ghobatian et al., 1994). It is often observed that organisations providing a sophisticated level of service, try to go beyond just satisfying their customers. â€Å"They emphasise the need to ‘delight them by providing them more than what is required. They also now talk about winning customers† (Dale, 2003). The latter highlights some customer service facts and indicates why service quality is crucial for a firm. (See Appendix A) While focusing on the increased importance of service quality, it is also essential to assess the related benefits and costs. Lewis (1991) has underlined some benefits when adopting a quality service strategy such as customer satisfaction and customer retention, loyalty, expanded market share, enhanced firms reputation, improvement in employee morale, low staff turnover, increased productivity, less mistakes, lower costs, high revenues, increased financial performance, high revenues and positive word-of-mouth. On the other hand, Crosby (1979) has identified the costs of poor quality which are related due to lack of responsiveness to customers, low morale of employees, dissatisfied customers and unfavorable word-of-mouth communication. Hence, it is important for businesses to clearly anticipate that service quality is the basic prerequisite for continuous success. 1.7 Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction In a competitive business environment where organisations compete for customers, customer satisfaction is perceived as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a primary element of business strategy (Carl D. McDaniel, 2005). Customers are the foremost decision makers in any marketing effort. They opt for a service offering that adds value to them and optimises their satisfaction. Many researchers such as Brady and Robertson (2001) and Lovelock, Patterson and Walker (2001) conceptualise customer satisfaction as an individuals feeling of pleasure or disappointment resulting from judging against a products perceived performance with respect to his or her expectations. But, Westbrook and Oliver (1981) make use of the confirmation-disconfirmation theory to better explain the meaning of customer satisfaction. This paradigm states that customers assess their levels of satisfaction by comparing their actual experiences with that of their previous experiences, expectations, and perceptions of the products performance. Parasuraman et al. (1994) mention that customer satisfaction is a key consequence of service quality and thus, it can determine the long term success of a service organisation. In the same vein, Oliver (1980) points out that customer satisfaction is affected by customer expectation or anticipation prior to obtaining a service and can be approximated by the following equation: Customer Satisfaction = â‚ ¬Ã‚  Perception of Performance Expectations Based on the above equation, Parasuraman et al. (1994) devise that a service provider can boost up overall customer satisfaction by either improving customer perceptions of a service or by lowering their expectations of it. If a service firm fails to respect this equation, then, this may dissatisfy the customer at the time and, in turn, will result in his or her switching to alternative service firms (McCollough, Berry, and Yadav, 2000; Roos, 1999). Thus, this equation is a valuable tool and a clear reminder that both factors, perceptions and expectations of customer satisfaction need to be managed and controlled by the service provider. An analysis of the literature on the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality has received a widely held view among researches. Caruana and Malta (2002) point out by mentioning that service quality is an important input to customer satisfaction. Zeithaml et al. (1996) share the same line of thought by suggesting that a customers relationship with a company is strengthened when that customer makes a positive appraisal about the companys service quality and is weakened when a customer makes negative assessments about the companys service quality. They argue that favourable assessment of service quality will result in favourable behavioral intentions like â€Å"praise for the company† and expressions of preference for the company over other companies. Thus, implying that there is a positive relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. However, the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality has been criticised for not being inter-related by many researches. For instance, Iacobucci et al. (1995) identify that the vast majority of articles attempting to scrutinise this inter-relationship have been of a non-empirical nature. Similarly, Anderson and Fornell (1994) point out that the literature is not very clear about the distinction between quality and satisfaction. Satisfaction is a â€Å"post consumption† experience which judges perceived quality against expected quality, whereas service quality refers to a global evaluation of an organisations service delivery system (Anderson and Fornell, 1994; Parasuraman et al., 1985). Hence, Dabholkar et al. (2000) suggest that it is recommended that customer satisfaction should be measured separately from service quality so as to understand how customers evaluate service performance. 1.8 Service Quality and Customer trust The trust that customers have in service organisations is an important concern for customer relationship managers. Existing research has accentuated the significance of trust and its implications for driving profitable and long-lasting customer relationships (Garbarino and Johnson, 1999; Morgan and Hunt, 1999). Practitioners and researchers have repeatedly emphasised the importance of service quality which enable firms to build stable and trusting relationships with customers (Grà ¶nroos, 1983; Rust, Moorman, and Dickson, 2002; Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman, 1996). Recent evidence highlights that there exists a positive relationship between service quality and trust (Chiou and Droge, 2006; Sharma and Patterson, 1999). To reinforce this notion, a firm that consistently meets or exceeds the expectations of customers will cultivate more trusting relationships with its customers. The courteous, caring, and responsive employee behaviours that are characteristic of service quality will inspire confidence in customers, particularly in retail outlets and thus will introduce a sense of trust for the retail store in customers (Weisinger, 1998). These related factors of service quality eventually contribute to the development of trust, and trust starts to develop as the customers experience positive service interactions and obtain benefits from this personal interaction. Consequently, the higher the service quality, the stronger is customer trust in an organisation. 1.9 Service Quality and Customer Loyalty The main aim of leading service organisations is to maintain a superior quality of service in an effort to gain customer loyalty. Coupled with this, Zeithaml (1996) believes that a service firms long term success in a market is essentially determined by its ability to expand and maintain a large and loyal customer base. Buttle and Burton (2002) simply describe customer loyalty as â€Å"a customer who continues to buy is a loyal customer†. Boulding et al. (1993) find that there is a positive relationship between service quality and customer loyalty, that is, customers having the repurchase intentions and the willingness to recommend. Sharing the same line of thought, Zeithaml et al. (1990) also report a positive relationship, thereby, customers willingly pay a price premium and intend to remain loyal in case of a price increase. However, Johnson et al. (2001) point out that this positive relationship varies between products, industries, and situations. On the other hand, some researchers argue that it has remained unclear whether or not there is a direct relationship between service quality and loyalty. In the study done by Cronin and Taylor (1992), service quality did not appear to have a significant or positive effect on customer loyalty. Similarly, Bloemer et al. (1999) mention that this relationship has remained relatively underdeveloped. 1.10 Handling customer complaints The phenomenon of customer complaints is considered as an area of great significance for businesses, particularly where organisations are increasingly recognising the value of pursuing long-term relationships with customers. Tax and Brown (1998) identify that only 5-10% of customers who are dissatisfied actually complain. Hence, it is imperative for organisations to encourage their customers to voice their dissatisfaction by providing communication facilities such as customer service desks. However, Blancero and Johnson (2001) argue that customer complaints could result in negative reactions from employees, which may in turn reduce service quality. But complaints can have a positive impact as well. It is an excellent opportunity for an organisation when receiving complaints in order to restore customer confidence and to capitalise on this feedback for helping in organisational improvements (Johnston, 2001; Ramsey, 2003). When focusing on handling customer complaints, it should include adequacy or fairness of the outcome, access to the organisation contact points, friendliness, empathy, active feedback, and speed of response (Stauss, 2002). 1.11 Service Failure and Recovery The retail industry involves a high degree of interaction between employees and consumers and as a result, provides many opportunities for service failures to crop up. According to Michel (2001), service failures include those circumstances when a service fails to live up to the customers expectations. Some consequences of service failures are dissatisfaction, negative word-of-mouth (Mattila, 2001), decrease in customer confidence and a decline in employee morale and performance (Boshoff and Leong, 1998). When service failure occurs, then service providers have to take actions to recover which gives rise to service recovery. Miller et al. (2000) describe service recovery as the actions takes to problems, change negative attitudes of dissatisfied customers and to ultimately retain these customers. Examples of recovery efforts consist of price discounts, improved services, refunds, free products or services, apologies, and acknowledgment of the problem (Kelley et al. , 1993). 1.12 Summary of the Literature Review This chapter has provided a general idea on service quality. It has started by providing an overview of services and quality with emphasis in the retailing industry. In addition, customer expectations, customer trust, loyalty and customer satisfaction have also been discussed. Undoubtedly, in the service quality literature, service quality is proven to provide many benefits to organisations. Literature Review Chapter Two: Related Concepts of Service Quality 2.0 Introduction In this chapter, service quality and its related concepts have been explored. They are as follows: The dimensions of service quality including SERVQUAL, Gap analysis, the three dimensions of Lehtinen and Lehtinen and the Perceived service quality model. Besides, the difficulties in measuring service quality as well as a critical review of the concept of service quality have also been identified 2.1 Dimensions of Service Quality Service quality is not a singular but rather it is a multidimensional phenomenon (Ghobatian et al, 1993). Without doubt, the identification of the quality dimensions to measure is of fundamental necessity as customers base their views about service on these dimensions (Kunst and Lemmink, 1996). Various writers and researchers have suggested a number of dimensions of service quality. For instance, Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) identify three dimensions for service quality which are physical quality (tangible aspects of service), corporate quality (company image and reputation) and interactive quality (two-way flow between customers and personnel). They also argue that it is important to differentiate between the output quality of service and the quality associated with the process of service delivery. Indeed, service quality is being perceived as a multidimensional concept. Grà ¶nroos (1984) point out that service quality comprises of three global dimensions: The technical quality which refers to what is delivered or what the customer gets from the service. For example, for a retail store, technical quality may consist of the range of products offered and the availability of parking space. The functional quality, that is, the way in which the service is delivered or how it is delivered. For example, customers of a retail store will assess whether the salespersons are friendly or whether products are easily returnable. The corporate image has to do with how consumers perceive the firm and is built by mainly both technical and functional quality and to some extent other factors such as the traditional marketing activities (pricing, advertising). Unlike Grà ¶nroos (1984) who uses the global measure of service quality, Parasuraman et al. (1985) argue that the criteria used by consumers to evaluate service quality fits ten dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, access, tangibles and understanding/knowing the customer. Later, after having carried out successive research, analysis and testing, Parasuraman et al. (1988) refine the dimensions into only five dimensions namely: Tangibles: the appearance of physical facilities, personnel, communication materials and condition of equipment. Reliability: the ability to perform the promised service on time dependably and accurately. Responsiveness: the willingness to help customers, to deal effectively with complaints and provide prompt service. Assurance: the employees knowledge and courtesy and their ability to convey trust and confidence. Empathy: The level of caring, individualised attention provided to the customers. 2.1.1 SERVQUAL Model Based on these five dimensions above, the SERVQUAL instrument has been developed. This particular instrument which is originally developed by A. Parasuraman, Valarie A. Zeithaml and L.L. Berry in 1988, measures service quality through customer opinions. They point out that SERVQUAL essentially comprises of two sections. The first section basically questions customers expectations, while the second part measures customers perceptions. The gap between the expected service and perceived service is measured using the SERVQUAL together with its five underlying dimensions of service quality (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy). The SERVQUAL incorporates 22 items in each of the two sections which are sub-items of the predefined five dimensions (refer to Appendix B). According to Zeithaml et al. (2006), SERVQUAL has been creatively used in multiple service contexts. Indeed, Parasuraman et al. (1988) suggest that the instrument is applicable across a wide variety of services. In the same line, Getz et al. (2001) put forward that SERVQUAL has been broadly used in a variety of service industries. They also point out that it is a helpful tool comprising of potential applications in assessing effectively consumers expectations and perceptions of service quality. Despite the fact that SERVQUAL is the most well known instrument for service quality, it has been criticised from several researchers. Cronin and Taylor (1992) claim that there are deficiencies in both the conceptualisation and operationalisation of service quality in the SERVQUAL model. Buttle (1996) criticises on the dimensionality of the SERVQUAL scale, especially to the number of dimensions and their stability from contexts to contexts. He also states that the dimensions are not universal. Following the same line of thought, Bahia and Nantel (2000) declare that this model emphas

A Rose For Emily - In Memory Of Emily Grierson Essay -- essays researc

In the short story  ¡Ã‚ §A Rose for Emily, ¡Ã‚ ¨ (1930) William Faulkner presents Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s instable state of mind through a missed sequence of events. Faulkner arranges the story in fractured time and then introduces characters who contribute to the development of Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s personality. The theme of isolation is also presented by Faulkner ¡Ã‚ ¦s descriptive words and symbolic images. Faulkner uses anachronism to illustrate Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s confused mind. The story is split into five sections. The first section begins with Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s funeral and moves on to her past. Faulkner first recaptures the dispensation of Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s taxes in 1894, he continues by illustrating Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s nature no to accepts new concepts. When the  ¡Ã‚ §next generation, with its more modern ideas ¡Ã‚ ¨ comes along, Miss Emily refuses to accept them (1009). Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s mixed feeling about the past is reflected in the structure of the story. Unlike most stories, the narrator does not continue the plot with the next chronological event rather presents one that happened two years earlier. This switch once again mirrors Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s unclear state of mind. The story ¡Ã‚ ¦s disjointed time frame not only reflects a puzzled memory but it also suggests Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s unwillingness to move along with time. While the reader reads through time and expects the story to be in sequence, Faulkner deliberately switches the time back and forth to emphasize Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s desire to stay in past. After the author introduces the character of Miss Emily, he goes back even further into the past to explain why Miss Emily possesses her unique personality. He also contributes to the development of Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s personality through the introduction of her father, Homer Barron, and Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s great aunt who all influence her maturity and experience of life. The primary figure in Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s life is her father. Faulkner uses this relationship to reveal Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s reserved nature. Because her father is an upper class figure, some of his ways of thinking has  ¡Ã‚ §thwarted [Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s] life ¡Ã‚ ¨ (1013). Miss Emily has always been kept in confined environments that only her father knows what she will do. The event of her father ¡Ã‚ ¦s death is a shock to Miss Emily because the guidance of her father is gone. This explains Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s behavior after her father ¡Ã‚ ¦s death as well as her reaction to another ... ...ulkner ¡Ã‚ ¦s short story  ¡Ã‚ §A Rose for Emily ¡Ã‚ ¨ uses many literary devices such as plot to emphasize the theme of mixed memory. While most stores are written in chronological order, this story is broken up into characters to build up Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s personality both externally and internally. While Faulkner uses Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s father and homer Barron to affect miss Emily in her environment, Faulkner also old lady Wyatt to suggest the possible inheritance of this unexplainable behavior from her family. Descriptive words are another big part of the story since Faulkner uses them to describe the themes of old age and isolation. While  ¡Ã‚ §coquettish decay ¡Ã‚ ¨ and  ¡Ã‚ §tarnished gold head ¡Ã‚ ¨ is used to compare old to new,  ¡Ã‚ §noblesse oblique ¡Ã‚ ¨ is used to reflect Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s past. Not only does Faulkner use descriptive words to describe Miss Emily, but he also uses symbolism. Throughout the story, Faulkner uses the description of Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s house to refer to Miss Emily herself. Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s once normal behavior and deterioration is captured in the house ¡Ã‚ ¦s old-fashioned look and the decayed look. Faulkner uses all these literary devices to present the themes of mixed memory, old age and isolation.

The Government And Environmental Policy Essays -- essays research pape

The Government and Environmental Policy The purpose of the United States' public policy law is to implement restrictions in an effort to solve problems, which can be seen with the Clean Water Act. Public policy has also been employed to reform the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Although the United States government is noble in it's efforts to preserve the environment through these acts, the internal structure of public policy often retards these acts' effectiveness. This paper will explore the many ways in which factors such as horizontal implementation, divided government, and other forms of public policy affect the environmental legislation involved with the aforementioned acts. The main factors involved with the Endangered Species Act of 1973 involve horizontal implementation structure and divided government. Before one can discuss how these policies affect environmental legislation, a brief description of each must first be lucidly explained. When our government was founded, a system of checks and balances was implemented between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches to ensure that no one part of government gets too much power. Although this limits the power of any one person in government, it often slows down the ability of government because a consensus can be difficult with so many people working together. Another problem is that there are many subgovernments affecting the legislation as well, such as interest groups like the Sierra Club, Administrative Agents like the Environmental Protection Agency, and Congressional Committees. Because these groups add to the total number of people working on the legislation, the original noble ideology of making policy for the good of the nation is voided. Also because there are so many differences of opinion, few drastic changes are made, instead small incremental changes are made which take up lots of time and retard the effectiveness and enforcement of the legislation. In addition to this chaotic turmoil, four steps must be implemented in order to pass a bill. These are initiation & definition, formulation & enactment (legitimation), implementation, and evaluation. The most relevant one of these steps is horizontal implementation when one considers the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act. This policy is the process that puts a law into effect after it has been legitimized. Congres... ...ne." (Adler, pg. 1) The Act's goals as set forth by Congress was to eliminate toxic discharge into significant bodies of water by 1985, improve water quality for marine and freshwater life by 1983, and for all "toxic pollutants in toxic amounts" into water. Of course that act has had mediocre success, and only through continued cooperation of the government's branches will further progress be made. In conclusion, it has been shown how different branches of government, different administrations, and different policies all worked together to retard the implementation of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act of the early 1970's. Although these processes do act in a system of governmental checks and balances as the founders of this country wished, the effectiveness of the acts take many years of careful compromising to become significant. REFERENCES 1. Adler, Robert W., et. al. The Clean Water Act 20 Years Later Island Press Washington, D.C. 1993 2. Horton, Tom "The Endangered Species Act: Too tough, too weak, too late." (1992) Audubon Vol. 94 pgs. 68-74

Evolution of Women’s Sports: Annika Sorenstam Strives for Perfection n

Evolution of Women’s Sports: Annika Sorenstam Strives for Perfection not Feminism Over the past 50 years, women’s sports have become more prevalent not only in the United States but also across the world. The ability for young girls and women to participate in athletics provides an avenue to experience competitive environments as well as build self-confidence in a world still dominated by men. During the early stages of women’s sports, the main idea was to show that women were worthy of having their own teams and organizations as an extension of the existing men’s sports. In other words, to prove to everyone the women could play many of the same sports that men could play. Women’s sports today are reaching a turning point in their development. They are not necessarily trying to emphasize the feminism and equality so predominant during the inception of women’s sports, but rather focusing on performing and competing at the highest level possible. This includes constantly challenging themselves and always striving for excellence in whatever sport they participate in. Women’s golf is a perfect example of this recent phenomenon. Number one ranked LPGA player Annika Sorenstam turned the golfing world on its head in the past few months by accepting a sponsor exemption to the Bank of America Colonial, a PGA event. Her acceptance was met with all types of media attention, including talk of making a statement for all women. However, Annika was quick to explain that her decision to play in the Colonial stemmed from her desire to challenge herself and elevate her own game to a new, unprecedented level. Women’s athletics has become a permanent fixture at every level in almost every sport worldwide. From y... ...a.† http://coachingforthefuture.com/Company_Information/Articles/Coach_Pia/coach_pia.html. 1997. â€Å"Ever-Busy, Mulit-talented Nilsson Dedicates Time to Teaching, Traveling, Forming Friendships.† http://coachingforthefuture.com/Company_Information/Articles/Ever_Busy_Nilsson/ever-busy_Nilsson.html. February 3, 2003. Homeyer, Hilary. Personal Interview. February 2003. â€Å"Sorenstam Says All the Right Things.† http://coachingforthefuture.com/Company_Information/Articles/Sorenstam_Says_Right/sorenstam_says_right.html. May 20,2003. â€Å"Sorenstam Tries a Proving Ground.† http://coachingforthefuture.com/Company_Information/Articles/Sorenstam_Proving_Ground/sorenstam_proving_ground.html. May 18,2003. â€Å"Swedish Scoring Secrets.† http://coachingforthefuture.com/Company_Information/Articles/Swedish_Scoring_Secrets/swedish_scoring_secrets.html. November 1997.

Bubbles Up: a Science Experiment on Density Essay

Density is the measure of the quantity of some physical property [usually mass] per unit length, area, or volume (YourDictionary.com). How does temperature affect density? Do items become denser after being frozen? It is well known that water becomes denser when it’s temperature lowers until its freezing point. Does this principle apply to oil; and if so, which kinds? This question easily applies to real world problems. For example, when there is an oil spill in the ocean, the clean up crews have to know how dense the oil is before simply cleaning it up. If the oil is dense enough that only very small amounts are rising to the surface, the clean-up team will have to come up with a deep cleaning plan that won’t harm marine wildlife. On a more everyday level, understanding how certain car oils are affected by weather, thereby affecting their density, is necessary to keep one’s car running adequately without leaving harmful residue behind in the mechanics. For this experiment, I will be testing the density of three different kinds of oil: olive oil, mineral oil, and Wilbert’s lemon oil. I will test the oils’ density before and after being placed in the freezer to see if there is a noticeable difference in the density of the oil. I predict that all of the oils featured in this experiment will be more dense after sitting in the freezer for an hour. I came up with this hypothesis after reviewing other density related science experiments. What further assisted in the making of this hypothesis was the recalling of the fact that objects with lower temperatures (such as air or water) become denser. Two experiments that I found to be quite similar to this one were the Density Column and the Bubbling Lava Lamp. The Density Column measures the density of seven different liquids by layering them on top of each other. By doing this experiment, one is able to find out which liquid is the most dense; with the order ascending from there. Based on the results, they found that not all oils are the same density. Vegetable oil came in fifth from the bottom of the tower; lamp oil was the seventh and last layer in the column (Spangler, 2012). In the Bubbling Lava Lamp experiment, the fact that water is denser than vegetable oil was taken advantage of. Using an Alka-Seltzer  tablet, the formed carbon monoxide bubbles that pushed the water up and through the vegetable oil. What happened thereafter is that the Alka-Seltzer bubbles would pop and the colored water would sink back down to the bottom of the container through the oil (Spangler). Regardless of penetration, the two liquids did not mix. While temperature was not a key factor in either experiment, they did show that the liquids differing in densities would not mix despite what was happening to them or around them – and that is important for this experiment. In order for Bubbles Up to work properly, the oils cannot mix with the water they are floating on top of no matter what happens. To conduct the science experiment, I used the following items: (3) 12 ounce cups (1) marble (1) dime (1) penny a pitcher of water a bottle of olive oil a bottle of mineral oil a bottle of Wilbert’s lemon oil blue food coloring a freezer a timer a measuring cup a spoon or a pair of tongs to retrieve the objects from inside the cups soap and water solution to clean the objects off paper towel thermometer : In the experiment Bubbles Up, the observer will drop various objects into each of the three cups and record how many bubbles of oil they observe. While the results may vary slightly from mine, it may be because of ambient temperature of the room they are working in. This design plan was chosen because timing how fast an object fell to the bottom of the cup is  impossible without computer assistance. However, counting how many bubbles of oil occur within the water is a good measure of how dense the oil is because of it being light enough to fall with the object. The reasoning behind this experimental design in terms of whether or not the density of oil changes with a change in temperature was a matter of working with limited resources. I have not found any other experiment using this method to test density; but there is a similar experiment for testing viscosity. In The Viscosity of Motor Oil, a marble was dropped through a a graduated cylinder of motor oil three different times. Each time, the motor oil was a different temperature. Density, volume, and velocity were used as variables to solve for viscosity (Ani, 2011). To begin, set up your work station. Mix the food coloring with the mineral oil. Fill each cup with four ounces of water. Then, fill one cup with six ounces of olive oil. Wash out the measuring cup; then fill a different cup of water with six ounces of mineral oil. Wash out the measuring cup again. Fill the last cup of water with six ounces of Wilbert’s lemon oil. At this point, you should have three cups – all of which have a different color oil floating on water. Set up the rest of your materials so that are out of the way, but within easy reach. Set up your data table (see table below). Proceed to Experiment 1. Part 1 Step 1 – Pick up a marble and drop it from the rim of the olive oil cup. Record how many bubbles of oil float upwards from the bottom. Carefully remove the marble with a spoon or tongs and wash it off with soap and water. Repeat this step with the dime and penny, making sure to remove each object and washing it off before moving on to the next object. Step 2 – Repeat step one exactly for the mineral oil cup and lemon oil cup. Step 3 – After ensuring you have recorded all data and washed all objects clean, proceed to Experiment 2. Part 2 Step 1 – Place all three cups containing oil in the freezer. Set the timer for one hour. Step 2 – After one hour has passed, carefully remove the cups  from the freezer, one by one, making sure to not shake them. Step 3 – Repeat Part 1. Do not skip any steps. Step 4 – After ensuring that you have recorded all data, carefully clean up. Have an adult assist in the disposal of the oil – water mixtures if you are under 18 years of age. You will observe how many bubbles float up through the water after dropping an object in, one at a time. Do this with one object, one cup at a time to retrieve accurate results. Remove the previous object before dropping the next one in (ie.; drop in the marble, record the data, remove the marble, drop in the dime, record the data, remove the dime, drop in the penny, record the data, remove the penny, go to the next cup and repeat). The data table should be set up in this manner: [Image Not Included] : I first recorded my data on paper with a pencil, then re-typed it on the computer. I suggest doing this so that there isn’t a possibility of damaging your electronic devices. The independent variables of this experiment are the oils. They will be tested in two differing temperature conditions. The dependent variables are the number of bubbles observed after dropping the objects into the cups. The number of bubbles should differ based on being a difference in the density of the oils after their temperature decrease. The control variables are the objects being dropped into the cups. They are constant and do not change in composition in any manner. While there are ways to ruin the validity of this experiment, I have taken steps to reduce and/ or completely cancel out threats to validity. The objects are all dropped from the rim of the cup to ensure that there are no variations in height from which they are dropped. Should there be a variation in height, that could very well affect the number of bubbles produced. All of the cups have four ounces of water in them so that there is the same amount of space for the bubbles to be observed within in each cup. All objects are washed off before being used again to avoid the oils mixing  together. All objects are reused for each cup so that there isn’t a variation in weight of the marble, dime, and penny. A variation in weight could affect the number of bubbles produced. When the cups were placed in the freezer, they are all placed on the same shelf in a row going side to side. By doing this, I have reduced the chances of any cup being in a section of the freezer that was cooler or warmer than another section. Lastly, I have made it a point to record the data immediately after observation so the chances of forgetting are practically impossible. With those steps taken, the validity of Bubbles Up has been ensured. I began the experiment by mixing the food coloring and mineral oil together. I then filled each cup with four ounces of water.. Then, I filled one cup with six ounces of olive oil; washed out the measuring cup and repeated this action with the mineral oil and Wilbert’s lemon oil. I carefully laid out the rest of my materials so that they were within easy reach, but out of the way of my work space. Lastly, I set up the data table so that I could easily write down my observations. I began by picking up the marble and holding it to the rim of the cup of olive oil. I proceeded to drop it in and counted the number of bubbles of oil that appeared. I then wrote down the number in the date table. I then carefully removed the marble with a spoon and washed the two items off. I then picked up the penny and held it to the rim of the same cup and dropped it in. I counted the number of bubbles and wrote down the data into the table. I then removed the penny with the spoon and washed both off. Lastly, I picked up the dime and and held it to the rim of the olive oil cup before carefully dropping it into the cup. I then counted how many bubbles came up and wrote the number down. After removing the dime with the spoon, I washed the dime and spoon off. I then moved on to the cup of mineral oil. Starting with the marble first again, I held it to the rim of the cup and dropped it in to the cup. After counting how many bubbles appeared, I wrote the number down. I then removed the marble with the spoon and washed them off. Then, I moved on to the penny and held it to the rim of the cup and dropped it in. I wrote down the number of bubbles I observed after dropping the penny in. The penny was then removed with a spoon and both were washed off. Last came the dime to be  dropped in from the rim of the cup. Post-observation of the bubbles, I wrote the number I had seen. Before going on to the last cup, I removed the dime from the cup with the spoon and washed them off. Turning my attention to the cup of Wilbert’s lemon oil, I picked up the marble and dropped it in from the rim of the cup. Counting the number of bubbles, I wrote how many I observed. Carefully, I removed the marble from the cup with the spoon and washed the two items off. Then the penny was dropped in from the rim and the number of bubbles was counted. The data was collected and written down into the table. The penny was removed with the spoon and the two items were washed off. Lastly, the dime was dropped into the cup from the rim and the number of bubbles that appeared was counted; that number was then written down into the table. Before concluding this half of the experiment, the dime was removed with the spoon and the two were washed off. At this point, the three cups were carefully transported to the freezer one by one. They were each placed on the second to top shelf about halfway from the back of the freezer. The three of the cups covered the length of the freezer from one side to the other (this was done in a two door refrigerator where the freezer and refrigerator stand next to each other instead of one top of the other). I then set the timer for one hour; and after that hour I removed the cups from the freezer and took their temperatures. They were all the same temperature – 43 ° F. I then placed the cups down on the table in the order they’d been in before (from left to right): olive oil, mineral oil, Wilbert’s lemon oil. I restarted the experiment by picking up the marble and holding it to the rim of the cup of olive oil. I proceeded to drop it in and counted the number of bubbles of oil that appeared. I then wrote down the number in the date table. I then carefully removed the marble with a spoon and washed the two items off. I then picked up the penny and held it to the rim of the same cup and dropped it in. I counted the number of bubbles and wrote down the data into the table. I then removed the penny with the spoon and washed both off. Lastly, I picked up the dime and and held it to the rim of the olive oil cup before carefully dropping it into the cup. I then counted how many bubbles came up and wrote the number down. After removing the dime with the spoon, I  washed the dime and spoon off. I then moved on to the cup of mineral oil. Starting with the marble first again, I held it to the rim of the cup and dropped it in to the cup. After counting how many bubbles appeared, I wrote the number down. I then removed the marble with the spoon and washed them off. Then, I moved on to the penny and held it to the rim of the cup and dropped it in. I wrote down the number of bubbles I observed after dropping the penny in. The penny was then removed with a spoon and both were washed off. Last came the dime to be dropped in from the rim of the cup. Post-observation of the bubbles, I wrote the number I had seen. Before going on to the last cup, I removed the dime from the cup with the spoon and washed them off. Turning my attention to the cup of Wilbert’s lemon oil, I picked up the marble and dropped it in from the rim of the cup. Counting the number of bubbles, I wrote how many I observed. Carefully, I removed the marble from the cup with the spoon and washed the two items off. Then the penny was dropped in from the rim and the number of bubbles was counted. The data was collected and written down into the table. The penny was removed with the spoon and the two items were washed off. Lastly, the dime was dropped into the cup from the rim and the number of bubbles that appeared was counted; that number was then written down into the table. I then removed the dime and washed it and the spoon off. I then disposed of the oils by dumping them out into my back yard; except the lemon oil. I flushed that down the toilet. After cleaning up my work space, I immediately set to digitizing my data table. Please refer to the attached charts for the data table and graphs. The method used to to run this experiment was counting bubbles instead of timing how fast the objects fell through the oil. The reason I did not time the objects’ fall was because it was far less than a second for each of them. However, the bubbles were a visible observation and did prove to change with the change of the oils’ temperature and density. Because the oil was denser, it stuck more to each object as they fell through and thus produced more oil bubbles in the water. Therefore, the question as to whether or not oil became denser when cooled was answered quite fully. Before freezing the oil, the number of bubbles per oil per object were pretty close in range considering the marble was the heaviest object and the dime was the lightest. It was also taken into consideration that unlike the marble, the two coins could produce only slightly more oil bubbles by flipping as they fell through the oil and water. Throughout the experiment, the coins didn’t flip more than one full rotation at any given time. The number of bubbles for the olive oil in order from heaviest to lightest object was 6, 7, and 4; giving an average of 5.6 bubbles. The number of bubbles for the mineral oil was 6, 5, and 3; providing an average of 4.3 bubbles. The number of bubbles for the Wilbert’s lemon oil was 10, 10, and 9; with a mean of 9.6 bubbles. If you refer to the chart, you’ll see that I didn’t add the averages to the chart or graph. My reason in mentioning them is to show that they fell within the range of numbers. However, if you look at the graph, you will see that after placing the oil in the freezer for one hour, the number of bubbles increased across the board. The post-cooling numbers for the olive oil are 11, 10, and 8; with an average of 9.6 bubbles. The post-cooling numbers for the mineral oil are 9, 7, and 5; with a mean of 7. The Wilbert’s lemon oil post-cooling bubble count is 13, 12, and 12; providing an average of 12.3 bubbles. The conclusion of Bubbles Up is that oil’s density is affected by temperature. This conclusion was reached by observing the change in the number of bubbles between the oil being room temperature and chilled in the freezer. Based on these findings, I accept my initial hypothesis of oil’s density will increase as its temperature decreases. As seen by the data chart and graph, more oil bubbles were created by the falling objects after the oil had been placed in the freezer for one hour. This conclusion was reached by having a clear and repeatable experimental design. Having a concise experimental design is important because it will help to ensure that there is little room for error. Also, designing an experiment around a scientific inquiry will make it more likely for that specific question to be answered in an accurate and testable manner. If the experimental design is badly planned out, one can have inaccurate results, inaccurate information, and even have an irreparable or injurious mistake occur. The reason for having a well made experimental design is to negate any ill effects that could arise during testing; as well  as ensuring valid results. One major factor of a well thought out experimental design is whether or not it can be replicated. Scientific replication in terms of experiments is important because it allows others to see first-hand what the original person observed. It also tests and retests the hypothesis and findings of the original experiment. If the experiment cannot be replicated, there isn’t a way to confirm whether the hypothesis is absolutely true and that those results from the first experiment are correct. For example, my experimental design detailed each step of the experiment as well as the conditions under which the experiment was done so that another person could repeat every portion of it down to the temperature of the room I was in. By making my design fairly simple, the steps of the design are easy and clear to follow. I indicated which order I tested things in, I made it clear to wash the items in between cups, I noted how long to leave the oils in the freezer for – among other things. Mentioning every detail – big and small – allows my experimental design to be replicated. Due to having a simple design that is replicable and reliable for its purpose, my study is fairly valid. It covered the purpose of the experiment, answered the question, and tested my hypothesis. I do believe that if this experiment was replicated, the results would be extremely similar. With similar results between the original experiment and a replication, the experimental design would be proven to be valid. The ability to replicate an experiment and achieve similar results is important. If one replicates an experiment exactly and the results are vastly different, then the validity of the experiment does not exist. The experiment would be considered invalid. The reason for this is because a replication of an experiment tests how well the experiment was designed. If the experiment is designed poorly, then the experiment’s results may be terribly inaccurate. If the results are inaccurate, then the experiment has proven nothing. The results would be useless and provide no kind of scientific advancement. More importantly, the lack of similar results in experiment replication means that the hypothesis can not be tested to prove it to be right or wrong repeatedly. Therefore, the study would be unproductive and invalid for all scientific purposes. References Spangler, S. (2012). Steve spangler science: Making science fun. Retrieved from http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/seven-layer-density-column Spangler, S. (n.d.). steve spangler science. Retrieved from http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/bubbling-lava-lamp Ani, B. O. (2011). The viscosity of motor oil. Informally published manuscript, University of South California, Los Angeles, , Available from California State Science Fair. Retrieved from http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2011/Projects/S1801.pdf density. (n.d.). Retrieved September 6th, 2012, from http://science.yourdictionary.com/density

Evolution of Mobile Phone Technology

A mobile phone (also known as a cellular phone, cell phone and a hand phone) is a device that can make and receive telephone calls while moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile phone operator, allowing access to the public telephone network. By contrast, a cordless telephone is used only within the short range of a single, private base station. In addition to telephony, modern mobile phones also support a wide variety of other services such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, gaming and photography. Mobile phones that offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones. The first hand-held mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing around 2. 2 pounds (1 kg). From 1990 to 2011, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12. million to over 6 billion, penetrating about 87% of the global population and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid. In 2012, for the first time since 2009 mobile phone sales to end users is declining by 1. 7 percent to 1. 75 billion units which is dominated by Samsung for 385 million units (53. 5 percent is smartphones) and Apple for 130 million units of all smartphones. History The first mobile tel ephone calls were made from cars in 1946. Bell System's Mobile Telephone Service was made on 17 June in St. Louis, Missouri, followed by Illinois Bell Telephone Company's car radiotelephone service in Chicago on 2 October. The MTA phones were composed of vacuum tubes and relays, and weighed over 80 pounds (36 kg).. John F. Mitchell, Motorola's chief of portable communication products in 1973, played a key role in advancing the development of handheld mobile telephone equipment. Mitchell successfully pushed Motorola to develop wireless communication products that would be small enough to use anywhere and participated in the design of the cellular phone. Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, was the key researcher on Mitchell's team that developed the first hand-held mobile telephone for use on a cellular network. Using a somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on 3 April 1973 to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren't cordless telephones or cellular phones. I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter – probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life. Martin Cooper The new invention sold for $3,995 and weighed two pounds, leading to a nickname â€Å"the brick†. The world's first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Several countries t hen followed in the early-to-mid 1980s including the UK, Mexico and Canada. On 6 March 1983, the DynaTAc mobile phone launched on the first US 1G network by Ameritech. It cost $100m to develop, and took over a decade to hit the market. The phone had a talk time of just half an hour and took ten hours to charge. Consumer demand was strong despite the battery life, weight, and low talk time, and waiting lists were in the thousands. In 1991, the second generation (2G) cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard, which sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators. Ten years later, in 2001, the third generation (3G) was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard. By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming media. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized 4th-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to 10-fold over existing 3G technologies. The first two commercially available technologies billed as 4G were the WiMAX standard (offered in the U. S. by Sprint) and the LTE standard, first offered in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera. Handheld mobile phone Prior to 1973, mobile telephony was limited to phones installed in cars and other vehicles. [13] Motorola and Bell Labs raced to be the first to produce a handheld mobile phone. That race ended on 3 April 1973 when Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment, placing a call to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. The prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Cooper weighed 2. 5 pounds and measured 9 inches long, 5 inches deep and 1. 75 inches wide. The prototype offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took 10 hours to re-charge. John F. Mitchell, Motorola's chief of portable communication products and Cooper's boss in 1973, played a key role in advancing the development of handheld mobile telephone equipment. Mitchell successfully pushed Motorola to develop wireless communication products that would be small enough to use anywhere and participated in the design of the cellular phone. Analog cellular networks – 1G The first analog cellular system widely deployed in North America was the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS). It was commercially introduced in the Americas in 1978, Israel in 1986, and Australia in 1987. AMPS was a pioneering technology that helped drive mass market usage of cellular technology, but it had several serious issues by modern standards. It was unencrypted and easily vulnerable to eavesdropping via a scanner; it was susceptible to cell phone â€Å"cloning;† Many of the iconic early commercial cell phones such as the Motorola DynaTAC Analog AMPS were eventually superseded by Digital AMPS (D-AMPS) in 1990, and AMPS service was shut down by most North American carriers by 2008. Digital cellular networks – 2G In the 1990s, the ‘second generation' mobile phone systems emerged. Two systems competed for supremacy in the global market: the European developed GSM standard and the U. S. developed CDMA standard. These differed from the previous generation by using digital instead of analog transmission, and also fast out-of-band phone-to-network signaling. The rise in mobile phone usage as a result of 2G was explosive and this era also saw the advent of prepaid mobile phones. In 1991 the first GSM network (Radiolinja) launched in Finland. In general the frequencies used by 2G systems in Europe were higher than those in America, though with some overlap. For example, the 00 MHz frequency range was used for both 1G and 2G systems in Europe, so the 1G systems were rapidly closed down to make space for the 2G systems. In America the IS-54 standard was deployed in the same band as AMPS and displaced some of the existing analog channels. In 1993, IBM Simon was introduced. This was possibly the world's first smartphone. It was a mobile phone, pager, fax machine, and PD A all rolled into one. It included a calendar, address book, clock, calculator, notepad, email, and a touchscreen with a QWERTY keyboard. The IBM Simon had a stylus you used to tap the touch screen with. It featured predictive typing that would guess the next characters as you tapped. It had apps, or at least a way to deliver more features by plugging a PCMCIA 1. 8 MB memory card into the phone. Coinciding with the introduction of 2G systems was a trend away from the larger â€Å"brick† phones toward tiny 100–200g hand-held devices. This change was possible not only through technological improvements such as more advanced batteries and more energy-efficient electronics, but also because of the higher density of cell sites to accommodate increasing usage. The latter meant that the average distance transmission from phone to the base station shortened, leading to increased battery life whilst on the move. The second generation introduced a new variant of communication called SMS or text messaging. It was initially available only on GSM networks but spread eventually on all digital networks. The first machine-generated SMS message was sent in the UK on 3 December 1992 followed in 1993 by the first person-to-person SMS sent in Finland. The advent of prepaid services in the late 1990s soon made SMS the communication method of choice amongst the young, a trend which spread across all ages. G also introduced the ability to access media content on mobile phones. In 1998 the first downloadable content sold to mobile phones was the ring tone, launched by Finland's Radiolinja (now Elisa). Advertising on the mobile phone first appeared in Finland when a free daily SMS news headline service was launched in 2000, sponsored by advertising. Mobile p ayments were trialed in 1998 in Finland and Sweden where a mobile phone was used to pay for a Coca Cola vending machine and car parking. Commercial launches followed in 1999 in Norway. The first commercial payment system to mimic banks and credit cards was launched in the Philippines in 1999 simultaneously by mobile operators Globe and Smart. The first full internet service on mobile phones was introduced by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in 1999. Mobile broadband data – 3G As the use of 2G phones became more widespread and people began to utilize mobile phones in their daily lives, it became clear that demand for data services (such as access to the internet) was growing. Furthermore, experience from fixed broadband services showed there would also be an ever increasing demand for greater data speeds. The 2G technology was nowhere near up to the job, so the industry began to work on the next generation of technology known as 3G. The main technological difference that distinguishes 3G technology from 2G technology is the use of packet switching rather than circuit switching for data transmission. In addition, the standardization process focused on requirements more than technology (2 Mbit/s maximum data rate indoors, 384 kbit/s outdoors, for example). Inevitably this led to many competing standards with different contenders pushing their own technologies, and the vision of a single unified worldwide standard looked far from reality. The standard 2G CDMA networks became 3G compliant with the adoption of Revision A to EV-DO, which made several additions to the protocol whilst retaining backwards compatibility: * the introduction of several new forward link data rates that increase the maximum burst rate from 2. 45 Mbit/s to 3. 1 Mbit/s. * protocols that would decrease connection establishment time. the ability for more than one mobile to share the same time slot. * the introduction of QoS flags. All these were put in place to allow for low latency, low bit rate communications such as VoIP. The first pre-commercial trial network with 3G was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in the Tokyo region in May 2001. NTT DoCoMo launched the first commercial 3G network on 1 October 2001, using the WCDMA technology. In 2002 the first 3G networks on the rival CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology were launched by SK Telecom and KTF in South Korea, and Monet in the USA. Monet has since gone bankrupt. By the end of 2002, the second WCDMA network was launched in Japan by Vodafone KK (now Softbank). European launches of 3G were in Italy and the UK by the Three/Hutchison group, on WCDMA. 2003 saw a further 8 commercial launches of 3G, six more on WCDMA and two more on the EV-DO standard. In the mid 2000s (decade), an evolution of 3G technology begun to be implemented, namely High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). It is an enhanced 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, also coined 3. G, 3G+ or turbo 3G, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity. Current HSDPA deployments support down-link speeds of 1. 8, 3. 6, 7. 2 and 14. 0 Mbit/s. Further speed increases are available with HSPA+, which provides speeds of up to 42 Mbit/s downlink and 84 Mbit/s with Release 9 of the 3GPP standards. By the end of 2007, there were 295 million subscribers on 3G networks worldwide, which reflected 9% of the total worldwide subscriber base. About two thirds of these were on the WCDMA standard and one third on the EV-DO standard. The 3G telecoms services generated over 120 Billion dollars of revenues during 2007 and at many markets the majority of new phones activated were 3G phones. In Japan and South Korea the market no longer supplies phones of the second generation. Although mobile phones had long had the ability to access data networks such as the Internet, it was not until the widespread availability of good quality 3G coverage in the mid-2000s (decade) that specialized devices appeared to access the mobile internet. The first such devices, known as â€Å"dongles†, plugged directly into a computer through the USB port. Another new class of device appeared subsequently, the so-called â€Å"compact wireless router† such as the Novatel MiFi, which makes 3G internet connectivity available to multiple computers simultaneously over Wi-Fi, rather than just to a single computer via a USB plug-in. Such devices became especially popular for use with laptop computers due to the added portability they bestow. Consequently, some computer manufacturers started to embed the mobile data function directly into the laptop so a dongle or MiFi wasn't needed. Instead, the SIM card could be inserted directly into the device itself to access the mobile data services. Such 3G-capable laptops became commonly known as â€Å"netbooks†. Other types of data-aware devices followed in the netbook's footsteps. By the beginning of 2010, E-readers, such as the Amazon Kindle and the Nook from Barnes & Noble, had already become available with embedded wireless internet, and Apple Computer had announced plans for embedded wireless internet on its iPad tablet devices beginning that Fall. Native IP networks – 4G By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming media. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized 4th-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to 10-fold over existing 3G technologies. The first two commercially available technologies billed as 4G were the WiMAX standard (offered in the U. S. by Sprint) and the LTE standard, first offered in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera. One of the main ways in which 4G differed technologically from 3G was in its elimination of circuit switching, instead employing an all-IP network. Thus, 4G ushered in a treatment of voice calls just like any other type of streaming audio media, utilizing packet switching over internet, LAN or WAN networks via VoIP. Evolution 2G networks were built mainly for voice services and slow data transmission (defined in IMT-2000 specification documents), but are considered by the general public to be 2. 5G or 2. 75G services because they are several times slower than present-day 3G service. . 5G (GPRS) 2. 5G (â€Å"second and a half generation†) is used to describe 2G-systems that have implemented a packet-switched domain in addition to the circuit-switched domain. It does not necessarily provide faster services because bundling of timeslots is used for circuit-switched data services (HSCSD) as well. The first major step in the evolution of GSM networks to 3G occurred with the introdu ction of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). CDMA2000 networks similarly evolved through the introduction of 1xRTT. The combination of these capabilities came to be known as 2. 5G. GPRS could provide data rates from 56 kbit/s up to 115 kbit/s. It can be used for services such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) access, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), and for Internet communication services such as email and World Wide Web access. GPRS data transfer is typically charged per megabyte of traffic transferred, while data communication via traditional circuit switching is billed per minute of connection time, independent of whether the user actually is utilizing the capacity or is in an idle state. 1xRTT supports bi-directional (up and downlink) peak data rates up to 153. kbit/s, delivering an average user data throughput of 80-100 kbit/s in commercial networks. It can also be used for WAP, SMS & MMS services, as well as Internet access. 2. 75G (EDGE) GPRS1 networks evolved to EDGE networks with the introduction of 8PSK encoding. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC) is a backward-compatible digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates, as an extension on top of standard GSM. EDGE was deployed on GSM networks beginning in 2003—initially by Cingular (now AT&T) in the United States. EDGE is standardized by 3GPP as part of the GSM family and it is an upgrade that provides a potential three-fold increase in capacity of GSM/GPRS networks. Duplex A duplex communication system is a point-to-point system composed of two connected parties or devices that can communicate with one another in both directions. An example of a duplex device is a telephone. The people at both ends of a telephone call can speak at the same time, the earphone can reproduce the speech of the other person as the microphone transmits the speech of the local person, because there is a two-way communication channel between them. Duplex systems are employed in many communications networks, either to allow for a communication â€Å"two-way street† between two connected parties or to provide a â€Å"reverse path† for the monitoring and remote adjustment of equipment in the field. Systems that do not need the duplex capability use instead simplex communication in which one device transmits and the others just â€Å"listen. † Examples are broadcast radio and television, garage door openers, baby monitors, wireless microphones, radio controlled models, surveillance cameras, and missile telemetry.