Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Adult Education and Training for Techniques-myassignmenthelp.com
Question: Discuss about theAdult Education and Training for Tools and Techniques. Answer: Introduction There are different methods for evaluation of training. The first one is using of learning theory which involves four levels, namely, reaction, learning, behavior, results. Then there are learner culmination and celebration formative evaluation, documentation and trainer reflection. For an effective training evaluation it must be suitable for the person as well as the situation. Sometimes evaluation of the personal development skills can extend beyond the necessary knowledge and skills of the organization, where effective personal development skills are taken into considerations (Arjovsky Bottou, 2017). Aims and methods Evaluation of learning session depends on certain factors. Usage of wrong tools can make the session monotonous and tiring. If a teacher asks the students to submit only positive feedback, the responses to the tools that were used should be true, helpful and give enlightenment (Phillips Phillips, 2016). It must be kept in mind that there are solid reasons which are good for evaluation. One must determine the cost as well as the benefit ratio of the program along with data collection which will help in future marketing programs. It is also important to recognize the strengths and weakness, decide the participants for future programs and who was the most or least beneficial from the training program. Educational aims and objectives have different benefits which help the trainers for course designing, communication, identification of resources and provide a guideline for evaluation and quality assurance. The feedback received from the stakeholders provides valuable information about th e strengths and weaknesses. Clear understanding of evaluation makes the participants more receptive towards the training method (Bhalla, 2014). The terms aims, objectives and learning outcomes are important teaching requirements which can be used for two purposes- what the trainer will do and what the trainees have learnt. Constructive feedback It is necessary to understand the importance of any information while using any evaluation tool. For instance, if questionnaire is used for evaluation, a collection of broader opinions can be helpful as it is not required by the organization. If the evaluation tool is not suitable for gathering information then a different tool will be used. One of the easy tools that can be used for gaining constructive feedback is to understand the main aspects of the learning process (Carpenter Dickinson, 2016). The main aspects include organizational priorities, measuring the aspects of training, and the impact of the training procedure. More the trainee will know about the organizational needs, better it will be to ensure about the usage of right tools for gathering information. Feedback is essential for the operation of an organization. A manager needs to perform the task of giving feedback time and again to let people know about their current situation and what they can do to attain the goal. It is an essential tool which indicates if things are going properly or if there is any problem. The situations which require the delivery of constructive feedback are- provide correct guidance, follow up on discussions, provide performance pointers, performance discussion and informing about the consequence of a behavior. Constructive feedback is needed when a participant asks about his own performance, persistence of complex situations and errors, not meeting up to the expectation of the employee performance and annoying work habit of the peer. While giving constructive feedback, description should be kept in mind and not judgment; observation and not interference; behavior and not the person; balance between the positive and negative feedback and being aware of the feedback overload (Goetsch Davis, 2014).The methods for giving constructive method include- clear purpose, observation, reaction, giving an opportunity to respond, specific suggestion and giving a gist as a support ( Punch Oancea, 2014). Results of evaluation Relevant data are produced after the effective evaluation of the adult learning session. Using right tools give a proper image of the success of learning evaluation. Selection of the accurate tool varies according to the information needs of the organization (Hale, Bevilacqua Viner, 2015). The outcome of the process of evaluation should be examined to take care of the questions of the organization and the success of the training. The primary objectives of the learning session are- to be clear about the training objectives, to have a specific plan for the facilitation of the training, to have a proper method for assessing the effectiveness of the training and to abide by the ethics, integrity and look into the benefits and improvement. If the process of evaluation describes the changes of evaluation as the most desired learning outcomes, then the above mentioned changes will have an impact on the evaluation process. The outcome received should be well analyzed after gathering. To ass ess the effectiveness of the training process against the set requirements that is relevant to the needs of the organization will be their attainable goal. Analysis is the major step in evaluation process and brings out the meaning of the data collected for evaluation. This process helps in finding documents and also remains accountable to the stakeholders. Before evaluation it must be kept in mind whether data analysis will be internal or external. A concrete plan for data analysis will enhance the situation of the organization and will be helpful for getting analysis from the external stakeholders. Interpretation of the gathered data will be helpful in assessing if the results are reasonable and what implications will it have on the training program (O'Neil, 2014). Positive results refer to the strength of the program and negative results modify the practices. Conclusion It can be concluded from the assignment that evaluation refers to the process of ascertaining the effectiveness of the training program. Information is provided which helps in modifying or amending the training session. The managers may want the evaluation to be conducted on the training as per the procedure for the betterment of the organization. Future trainings are also upgraded with material and content. If the current needs are met then there is a scope for training and assessment. Reference Arjovsky, M., Bottou, L. (2017). Towards principled methods for training generative adversarial networks.arXiv preprint arXiv:1701.04862. Bhalla, S. U. R. U. C. H. I. (2014). E-learning: tools, techniques and trends.Int. J. Eng. Sci. Invent. Res. Dev,1, 82-87. Carpenter, J., Dickinson, H. (2016).Interprofessional education and training. policy press. Goetsch, D. L., Davis, S. B. (2014).Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson. Hale, D. R., Bevilacqua, L., Viner, R. M. (2015). Adolescent health and adult education and employment: a systematic review.Pediatrics,136(1), 128-140. O'Neil, H. F. (Ed.). (2014).Learning strategies. Academic Press. Phillips, J. J., Phillips, P. P. (2016).Handbook of training evaluation and measurement methods. Routledge. Punch, K. F., Oancea, A. (2014).Introduction to research methods in education. Sage.
Sunday, April 5, 2020
Incumbents vs. New Candidates in Congressional Election an Example by
Incumbents vs. New Candidates in Congressional Elections Winning an election is a very methodical process. It cant be won by sheer luck. The campaign should be planned carefully and systematically executed. If elections are won through deliberations, then the results shouldnt be predictable as we are experiencing it now. Elections are won by the candidates degree of popularity, a large budget for campaign, and good political relations. These elements are the advantages incumbent politicians have over incoming politicians. Need essay sample on "Incumbents vs. New Candidates in Congressional Elections" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed To win the control of the Congress almost equals the importance of winning the control for the Whitehouse. Currently, the balance of power of the opposing political parties is quite close. This is very important because unlike the Parliament system, in the U.S the Congress has separate powers with that of the president. All laws are supposed to be passed first in the Congress. To win control of the Congress means more numbers in politicians having the same agendas, this in turn grant political parties more power over the politics of the government. Although, members of the congress are free to decide whether they are in favor or not in a certain law, they are likely to favor the decision of fellow politicians of the same party. As the clich says, birds of the same feather flock together. Opposing political parties are existing because they cant agree on certain issues therefore there are disputes, and these disputes are won by votes. If there are more party members that won the election and is able to vote in disputes within the Congress, then it is logical that it favors the political party with the most number of politicians. After all, there is considerable strength in numbers. Our Customers Very Often Tell EssayLab specialists: How much do I have to pay someone to write my paper today? Essay writer professionals suggest: Help With Essay Writing Custom Essay Reviews Pay For Essay Best Essay Writing Service Write My Essay Online It is very logical that voters favor candidates that theyve known longer as opposed to the new faces theyve just seen during the campaign period. The time voters learn about a candidate is connected to how much theyve learned from the candidate (Abramowitz 1975). Voters can relate more to incumbents because they can simply review the incumbents performance during their past term/s. It will also favor the incumbent more if he had a decent performance during his or her past term/s. It is not uncommon that in politics a politicians blunder is easily covered-up. Im not stereotyping all politicians, just stating their obvious advantage. Voters are also unlikely to gamble in having put to the hands of a new politician the mercy of their area, especially if the incumbent has done a decent work regarding his political position. Incumbents also have the advantage of the support of their respective political parties. It may come as financial and the predetermined support of their respective partys loyalists. Being part of a political party means wider campaigning capabilities and endorsements of other politicians running for the highest seats in the government. Of course, the non-incumbents also belong to a political party and also gain the same benefits. But they are burdened the task of impressing voters with their credentials and campaign speeches that is only to be exposed to the public during the campaign period. The non-incumbents are burdened the challenge of having a short period for preparations and being typically unknown to the general public. Incumbents practically have their whole past term/s as their campaign period. With the convenience of being uncontested, they also have their names along with the issues and projects concerning their area thus giving the voters more recall of their names. An election study was done in an election in Missouri in 1994. The survey began three days before the actual electionsthe timing of the study overlaps with the most intense part of the congressional campaignThe eight incumbent members up for reelection in the state of Missouri in 1994 faced a range of challengers, from several very weakto a few relatively well financed, serious opponents. Although eight of the Missouri incumbents won decisively, the range of talent they faced allows to demonstrate some of the over-time differences in campaigning between moderately intense and barely contested races. (Elms. Sniderman) Although the date of this study maybe questioned, what it had shown us are trends of decision making within the voting public. A challenging candidate may gain the necessary requirements of a voter, but still a certain amount of time is required for the voter to influence another voter to vote for a challenger. Congressional elections are anticipated as how a new candidate would match up with an incumbent politician, much like between a challenger and a defending champion in boxing. In boxing matches, most bets are placed to the defending champion because they proven that they can win their matches and are likely to win again. This has been a common trend in the past elections. This trend has been cutting the number of credible candidates because it has been difficult for them to beat incumbents in elections. New candidates must surpass the efforts of the incumbents. Incumbents are there from the very starts, and so challengers must find ways to deal with that fact. They should gain popularity way before they even proclaim their plans of candidacy, this is to somehow be at par with the time span incumbents do their campaigning which is during their term/s. If ever the challenger wins the election, this cycle will repeats itself in the next election as new challengers for the coveted seat em erge. Works Cited Abramowitz A. The 2004 Congressional Elections. The American Political Science Association. Abramowitz A. Name Familiarity, Reputation, and the Incumbency Effect in Congressional Elections. Western Political Quarterly, 1975 Aldrich J. H. Congresional elections. International Information programs. Barone, Michael, and Ujifusa G. The Almanac of American Politics 1996. Washington, DC: National Journal 1995 Elms and Sniderman P. M. Informational Rhythms of Incombent-Dominated Congressional Elections. Jacobson G. C. The Politics of Congressional Elections. USA: Longman, 2001 Jacobson G. C. and Kernel S. Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections. USA: Yale UP, 1981
Sunday, March 8, 2020
Financial Analysis of Nokia The WritePass Journal
Financial Analysis of Nokia Introduction of Nokia Financial Analysis of Nokia Introduction of NokiaFinancial RatiosProfitability Ratios:Return Ratios:Activity Ratios:Liquidity Ratios or Credit Ratios:Share Holder’s Ratio:ConclusionReferencesRelated Introduction of Nokia Nokia, one of the leading brands in mobile phones, was started by a mining engineer, Fredrik Idestam, in 1865 by making paper from wood pulp mill; a second paper mill was built on Nokianvirta river that gave birth to the present name of this company-Nokia. The company then started different business and mergers and then finally started mobiles business in 1968. Its head office is in Espoo, Finland and currently has almost 132,000 employees worldwide. Its main products (mobile phones, smartphones, mobile computers, Networks) and services (Maps Navigation, media software solutions, music, messaging) are in the field of Telecommunication, Internet computer software. Nokia is selling its products to almost 150 countries globally with annual revenue of over 42 billion euro with 2 billion operating profits and global market share of nearly 35% in 2010. (nokia.com) Nokia did many innovations and has credit to be the world’s No 1. in many of its products and services e.g. worlds first portable NMT car telephone (Nordic Mobile Telephone-NMT) built by Nokia, GSM call, Nokia Tunes, satellite call, brings Internet on mobile. It introduces First 3g Phone, digital hand portable phones supporting data, fax and the Short Message Service, integrated wireless payphone, dual mode AMPS/TDMA phone, high-speed data terminal for wireless networks, WAP handset, introduced the industry first multimedia messaging solution, first 3GPP compliant WCDMA/GSM dual mode phone, first TDMA handsets with full-color displays, mobile handset with a 4GB hard disk which can store up to 3000 tracks, Nokia N95 was the world’s first device combining GPS and wireless broadband (HSDPA/WLAN). From January 2010, high-end car and pedestrian navigation is available for free on Nokia smartphones. (Zacks research, 2011) One can imagine its success and popularity from the fact that till 2005, 2 billion mobiles were sold worldwide and Nokia alone sold its billionth phone in that year. According to Nokia Corporation, ‘Nokia’s story continues with 3G, mobile multiplayer gaming, multimedia devices and a look to the future’ (nokia.com) and â€Å"Nokia’s mission is simple; Connecting People. Our strategic intent is to build great mobile products. Our job is to enable billions of people everywhere to get more of life’s opportunities through mobile.†(nokia.com) Currently, with the invention of many smart android phones, Nokia is facing stiff competition in mobiles market as its sales figures are moving downward. But they are now making changes in their structure and operations that is depicted by their statement, â€Å"Nokia has recently outlined its new strategic direction, including changes in leadership and operational structure to accelerate the company’s speed of execution in a dynamic competitive environment.†(nokia.com)       Critical Discussion of Recent Past Performance – Financial Ratio Analysis Financial analysis helps in establishing a relation between various financial statements’ elements which can then be compared with other information about the business. This also determines the future prospects of the company and the area that needs improvement. The basic purpose is to analyze the current financial position performance of the company according to which a judgement can be made regarding future performance of the business. (Dyson. J.R, 2007) Financial analysis from the point of view of an investor is mostly concerned with the profitability of the company and also the returns what the company pay to their stock holders in the form of dividends and/or right shares and increase in the stock value. (CIMA, 2000) One has to look carefully to the annual accounts of the company and the yearly growth trend in terms of revenues, profit and its market share. For the analysis purpose, consolidated accounts of Nokia i.e. Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement for the last four years from 2007 to 2010 is taken into account and theses figures obtained from the company’s website are given below: Consolidated Income Statement of Nokia for the Year Ended (EURm)                                    2007               2008               2009               2010               Net Sales/ Revenues  51,058            50,710            40,984            42,446 Cost of Sales              33,781            33,337            27,720            29,629 Gross Profit                17,277            17,373            13,264            12,817 Res Dev                 5,636              5,968              5,909             5,288 Sell Ad Exp            5,544              5,664              5,078              4,529 Other Inc                    2,312               420                338                 507 Other Exp                   424               1,195               510                   56 Op Profit                    7,985              4,966              1,197              2,070 Profit Bef Tax            8,268              4,970               962               1,786 Tax                             1,522              1,081               702                 443 Net Profit                   6,746              3,889               260               1,343 (nokia.com) From this income statement, it is observed that Sales are having a decreasing trend from 2007 to 2009 but shows a slightly increase in 2010 and cost of sales, operating profit, earnings per share and the net profit has also the same trends. It means that profitability of Nokia was much better in 2007 that is 6.7 billion euro as compared to 260 million euro in 2009, but it again shows signs of improvement in 2010 and net profit become 1.3 billion euro. Consolidated Balance Sheet of Nokia for the Year Ended (EURm)                                    2007               2008               2009               2010 Assets Cash Eqv                11,992            7,854              9,202              12,653 A/Rec                         11,356            9,545              7,995              7,609 Inventory                   2,876              2,533              1,865              2,523 Other C/A                  3,070              4,444              4,551              4,360 Tot C/A                      29,294            24,470            23,613            27,145 Plant PE                  1,758              1,985              1,822              1,856 Goodwill                    1,384              6,257              5,171              5,723 Tot Assets                  37,599            39,582            35,738            39,123 Liabilities A/Pay                         7,074              5,225              4,950              6,101 Tot C/L                      18,976            20,355            15,188            17,540 Oth/L                         1,285              2,717              5,801              5,352 Tot/Liab                     20,261            23,072            20,989            22,892 Equity                        17,338            16,510            14,749            16,231 Tot Lib Eq            37,599            39,582            35,738            39,123                                                                                                           (nokia.com) The balance sheet gives an idea to investor that how much business is invested by the shareholder’s equity and how much debt is owed. (Dyson. J.R, 2007) It is depicted from these balance sheets of Nokia that approximately 45% business is financed by the equity in 2007 but for the next three years this figure is reduced to around 41%. This shows that company owes more in 2010 as compared to 2007 and its financial position was much better in 2007 compared with 2010. Consolidated Cash Flow Statements of Nokia for the Year Ended (EURm)                                                2007               2008               2009               2010 Net Income                            6,746              3,889               260               1,343 Depreciation                           1,206              1,617              1,784              1,771 Cash from Op Act                 7,882              3,197              3,247              4,774 Cash from Invest                    -710              -2,905             -2,148             -2,421 Cash from Finance                 -3,832             -1,545               -696               -911 Net Change in Cash               3,325              -1,302                378             1,666 (nokia.com) The analysis of Cash flow statement gives true information about profit of a company as it relies on real cash transactions. Income statement can sometime mislead because of insufficient cash flows figures showing on the statement. Investors are mostly interested in cash flow statements before making decision to have a clear picture of the company’s cash transactions. The company’s with plenty of cash availability mostly have fewer problems for expansions or investments for growth, paying off debts or to buy back their own stocks. This cash flow statement shows that Nokia has good position as regard to the cash flow during the year 2007, but it comes to negative figure in 2008 because of losses from investments and finances, but it recovers again in 2009 and makes good progress in 2010. It overall shows that although Nokia had a hard time in 2008 but it picked up again in the subsequent years. Financial Ratios Some financial ratios are calculated as regard to profitability, asset turnover, short term and long term liquidity ratios based on the figures outlined in the Income Statement and balance sheets given above for four years from 2007 to 2010. These ratios and their explanations are given as under: Profitability Ratios: Gross Profit Margin               33.84%           34.26%           32.36%           30.20% Op Profit Margin                   16.19%           9.80%             2.34%             4.21% Net Profit Margin                  13.24%           7.63%             0.63%             3.21% Profitability ratios compare components of income with sales and provide an idea of what makes a business’s income and is expressed as a portion of each sales unit i.e. euro in case of Nokia. These profit margin ratios are different only in terms of numerators and reflect and evaluate performance of different aspects of the company. These all profitability ratios explain the Nokia’s ability to generate the earnings and coverage of its expenses and other costs for the same period (Dyson. J.R, 2007) For Nokia, we observe that Gross profit margin (Gross Profit/ Sales) remains almost equal (30.2% to 34.2%) for the four years in observation, but the operating profit and Net profit margin shows a great fluctuations ( 2.3% to 16.1% in case of op profit and 0.6% to 13.2% for net profit). This means that Nokia has more operating expenses i.e. selling, marketing, RD and administration expenses. Secondly, if we see vertically, in year 2007, the difference between Gross profit and net profit is less (33.84%-13.24%= 20.6%) as compared to subsequent years e.g. in year 2009, the difference is 32.63%-0.63%= 31.73; this shows that in this year there is more operating expenses. But this situation improves a little in 2010 and net profit becomes again 3.21%. Return Ratios: Return on Assets                    17.94%           9.82%             1.00%             3.90% Return on Capital                   54.8%             27.2%             6.7%               7.02% Return on Equity                   53.9%             27.5%             6.5%               8.67% Return ratios are also important profitability ratios. These measures the efficiency with which a business employed its assets, capital and equity for profit generation i.e. amount of profit in relation to investment of total assets. For Nokia, these ratios show that assets are employed more efficiently in the year 2007 and then it has a decreasing trend till 2009 and shows a better position for 2010 as compared to 2009. Activity Ratios: Tot Asset TO                         1.4x                1.3x                1.1x              1.1x Fix Asst TO                           29.0x              25.5x             22.5x            23.1x Inventory TO                         17.8x              20.0x             22.0x             16.8x Activity ratios measures how well the business assets are used i.e. the benefit produced by the company’s assets or how effectively the business investment is being used. The greater the turnover, more effectively the assets are being used (Dyson. J. R, 2007) Liquidity Ratios or Credit Ratios: Current Ratio                         1.5:1                1.2:1             1.5:1              1.5:1 Acid Test Ratio                      1.23:1             0.86:1            1.13:1             1.15:1 These two liquidity or credit ratios measure whether a business can pay off debts or bills from its resources over the next twelve months. Acid test ratio (current assets-inventories/current liabilities) gives a clearer picture than current ratio (current assets-current liabilities) because it shows that business is capable to pay off its current liabilities without selling the inventory because sometimes it becomes difficult to sell the inventory at the time of solvency. Nokia has a good result for these ratios, and shows that the business can easily pay its debts in case there arise any problem. Long Term Solvency Debt/Equity Ratio                  1.17                1.39               1.42                1.41 This debt equity ratio is greater than one, means that Nokia’s most assets are mainly financed by debt than shareholder’s equity (Dyson. J. R, 2007) This ratio shows that how much Nokia is relying on debt. From these figures, it reveals that Nokia is depending more on debt as compared to the equity and this has an increasing trend from 2007 onwards. Share Holder’s Ratio: Earning /share            1.85                1.07                0.24                0.50 The investors have a keen interest in this ratio as this shows that how much business earns in terms of share of stock because if the business earns more, then it can give more to their shareholders. Nokia’s earning per share is 1.85 in 2007 which decreases to 0.24 in 2009 but again shows a good performance in 2010 therefore E/Share increased to 0.50. Other Issues to be Considered in Pursuit of a Potential Investor A potential investor has to do a full market research about the company and the trends of its growth, market reputation, its competition, development growth within the company and within the industry along with the complete examination of the financial statements because an investor not only needs a return on the investment but also wants safety of its funds invested. For financial analysis, one has to consider the revenue generation, operating income from operations, net income, return on equity, balance sheet strength and the competitive advantage over a period of years and also its trend along with the trend of the industry. As far as Nokia Corporation (NOK) is concerned, it is the largest manufacturer of the mobile phones in the world and is the market leader in most of its innovations since 1990’s. But due to the significant increase in the use of smartphones and android phones in the past recent years, Nokia is facing some difficulties for maintaining its same market share as it was before. Global mobile phone sales totalled 269.1 million units in 1st qtr of 2009, decreased 8.8% from 1st qtr of 2008. Smartphone sales were 36.4 million units, an increase of 12.7% from the same time last year. Nokia continued to lead the mobile phone market, but its market share dropped from 39.1% to 36.2% in the 1st qtr of 2008 to 1st qtr of 2009. Smartphones sales are 13.5% of all the mobile devices sold in 2009. (Gartner, May 2009) 5 Year Stock Charts for Nokia Corporation- US (NOK) ( As on 22-04-2011) Source: Businessweek.com Industry Analysis-Year to Date (As on 22-04-2011) Nokia (NOK) Source: Businessweek.com As the consumers are using more smartphones and android phones now a days, therefore its market share are increasing and also the future expectations to use these phones, as is shown in the figures below: Smart Phone Market Share with OS (March, 2011) Source: The Nielson Company (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com) Next Desired Operating System (Consumers planning on getting a new smartphone in the next year) Source: The Nielson Company (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com) Nokia has lost its market share in profitable smartphone segment because of Apple’s iphone and Google’s android phone. In the last few years consumers are moving towards most modern Android phones from Samsung, HTC and prefer less to use the old symbian platform used by Nokia. The Gartner, one research firm expects that android will replace Symbian, and will become the world’s most widely used smartphone this year. Its global market share is expected to be 38.5% as compared to symbian 19.2%. (The Wall Street Journal, Apr 2011) According to Gartner â€Å"By the end of 2011, Android will move to become the most popular operating system (OS) worldwide and will build on its strength to account for 49 percent of the smartphone market by 2012† ( Gartner, Apr 2011) Their prediction table is given below: Worldwide Mobile Communications Device Open OS (Operating System) Sales to End Users by OS ( Thounds of Units) Source: Gartner (April, 2011) In pursuit of fierce competition from other companies like Samsung, Motorola, Apple, Google, HTC and others, some recent developments made by Nokia: Nokia has entered in a fifty-fifty joint venture with Siemens AG after receiving Chinese regulatory clearance in acquiring the wireless network infrastructure assets of Motorolla Solutions Inc. Nokia started using Windows Mobile 7 software in all of its smartphones. (Zack research, 2011) Nokia made a definitive agreement with Microsoft Corp for the development of a smartphone ecosystem. (BBC, 2011) In the first quarter 2011, net revenue was $14,214 million that is increased by 9% year over year. This increase was due to the stronger demand, average selling prices and higher volume sales in most of the regions. (Zack research, 2011) Gartner says, that after Nokia replacing symbian with Microsoft Windows phone operating system, it will not only be able to cut operating cost but also proving better products services to its customers. In 1st qtr of 2011, Nokia’s smartphone share in the global market fell down to 26% from 41% one year ago. The company is also expecting that its 2nd year will also be challenging, but because of the deal with Microsoft ‘there is less uncertainty for investors about the companys future prospects’ (The Wall Street Journal, Apr 2011). This deal will also help Nokia in clearing the hurdles in the way of commercializing the new Windows smartphones as quickly as possible. In the 1st quarter 2011, Nokia’s quarterly revenue was up 9% year over year. The increase was attributable to higher volumes in most regions driven by stronger demand and higher average selling price (ASP). However, gross margin was 29.1% compared with 32% in the last quarter. (Zack Research, Apr 2011) Also Hudson securities said (Apr 2011) that Nokia reported strong results for its 1st quarter 2011 with revenue earning per share more than expectations. According to International human press newswire, Nokia’s global presence is still significant as 1.3 billion people using the Nokia’s phone for connecting every day. The Nokia’s deal with Microsoft seemed to be another â€Å"Blockbuster†, its sales will increase and the prices could go back to 2007. (ITHP, Feb 2011)  Conclusion Nokia (NOK), a Finland based multinational company, is the biggest name in the mobile communication technology. Earlier it was involved in many businesses but from 1992 it concentrated on its communication segment and soon became the market leader in many of its innovations. Nokia’s phones are loved by every sector of the consumers, not only because of their reliability but also because that it is providing the cheapest mobiles with most basic functions and also high quality phones with all the latest functions. Its market share remains above 40% globally till last few years. In 2005, 2 billion mobiles were sold worldwide and alone Nokia sold its billionth mobile in that year. There is a fierce competition in the mobile communication market. Main competitors are Nokia, Apple, Samsung, Google and HTC. All suppliers are making innovations and trying to provide new extra functions or services in the mobiles therefore expectations of the consumers are increasing day by day and in this race many companies are providing new innovative mobiles periodically. From the financial statements of Nokia and the ration analysis, it is examined that Revenues, operating income, profit margin, return on equity, earning per share from 2007 has a decreasing trend till 2009 but all these shows positive developments again from 2010. Current ratio, Quick ratio is also in favour of Nokia. Also, in first quarter 2011, Nokia did very well and more than expectations. Although its overall market share is somewhat decreasing due to the Apple’s iphone and Google’s android phone. But as Nokia did a deal with Microsoft recently for using its windows 7 and producing an ecosystem in mobiles, and also it is doing re-organization of the company, it is expected that it will be able to gain its market share again, still 1.3 billion people are using Nokia worldwide. Therefore, one can invest in Nokia but also need to keep an eye on the growth and development it is making with the passage of time. References BBC News, Nokia and Microsoft form partnership. 11 Feb 2011, online, assessed on April 20,2011, available from bbc.co.uk/news/business-12427680 Business week, April 22, 2011, ‘Information Technology Sector, Communications Equipment Industry’, online, assessed on April 22, 2011, available from http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/earnings/earnings.asp?ticker=NOK:US CIMA. (2000) Management Accounting Official Terminology. London: The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants Dyson, J.R. (2007) Accounting for Non-Accounting Students. Seventh Edition, England: FT Prentice Hall Fortune, CNNmoney.com, ‘Nielsen: Android gains, iPhone slips’ April 26, 2011, online, assessed on Apr 26, 2011, available from http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/26/nielsen-android-gains-iphone-slips/ 6.     Gartner Research, May 20, 2009, ‘Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Declined 8.6 Per Cent and Smartphones Grew 12.7 Per Cent in First Quarter of 2009’, online assessed on Apr 26, 2011, available from gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=985912 Gartner Research, April 7, 2011 ‘Gartner Says Android to Command Nearly Half of Worldwide Smartphone Operating System Market by Year-End 2012’,  online, assessed on Apr 26,2011, available from gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1622614 8. ‘Hudson Securities Reports Strong 1Q11 Results For Nokia’ April 21, 2011, online assessed on Apr 27, 2011, available from http://origin.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/11/04/1023585/hudson-securities-reports-strong-1q11-results-for-nokia ITHP, International human press newswire, ‘Invest in Nokia?, Feb 2011, online, assessed on Apr 26, 2011, available from ithp.org/articles/nokia.html Nokia website, online, assessed on April 15, 2011, available from nokia.com Reisinger. D, Cnet news, April 26, 2011, ‘ Nielsen: Android gains, iPhone slips’, online, assessed on April 26, 2011, available from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20057445-17.html The Wall Street Journal, 21 Apr, 2011, ‘Nokia Lifts Itself Out of the Doldrums’, online, assessed on Apr 26, 2011 available from http://money.uk.msn.com/wall-street-journal.aspx?cp-documentid=157142938 Zacks Research, Business News, ‘Nokia Surprises in 1Q11’ 21-02-2011, online, assessed on April 17, 2011, available from favstocks.com/nokia-surprises-in-1q11/2148356/
Friday, February 21, 2020
Developing People and Planning Work Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words
Developing People and Planning Work - Assignment Example The role of a team player is to contribute and participate whole-heartedly. Understanding the responsibilities and expectations of the team and aligning them to the organizational goals, will enable the player to progress on a personal level as well as a team member. By offering support to the other team members and arriving at a plan and executing the task within timelines will enhance the team performance. A good team manager who in addition to performing the roles of a team player, also tries to bring out the best in his team, by leveraging on the strength of the members and playing down their weaknesses. A team has been defined as "a small number of people with complementary skills who are equally committed to a common purpose, goal, and working approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable."(Katzenbach, Smith, 1993). A group of people does not constitute a team. A team has clearly defined goals and performance objectives for which members are individually and collectively accountable. A team is characterized by being trained and in communication with its other members. Its members support each other, officially and personally and share expertise to achieve project goals. Teams have a set of rules that are enforced and take time to develop and achieve the highest level of performance. The role of performance measures is measurements of performance that serve to inform the organization about the efficiency of achieving predetermined goals. This continuous monitoring serves the purpose of controlling the progress of the work within a specified framework and should corrective action be required, timely intervention is made possible. Motivation Motivation as a business concept Motivation may be defined as the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals. Traditionally, employees were just a part of the business entity and were not treated as a valuable asset. However with the Hawthorne Studies began the human relations approach to management, whereby the needs and motivation of employees become the primary focus of managers (Bedeian, 1993). It did not take long for them to realize that motivated employees are more productive and contribute to better overall efficiencies of the organization. Therefore, the onus was on the manager to make sure that the employee was motivated and this was quite a challenge due to the complexity of human nature. Each unique individual had different reasons to be motivated and different methods that were effective and this made it arguably really complex. Source from website http://www.accel-team.com/motivation/index.html Assess motivation of team Teams that are motivated often possess these characteristics Purpose: When teams have a specific purpose, goal or a mission, then the members are united towards a specific path and are motivated to travel along it. Challenge: Motivation is generally high when the task is challenging and has a level of difficulty that excites the team members to perform better. However, if the task is too difficult, members may give up or if it is too easy, members just slack and take it easy. Camaraderie: When team members genuinely like each other, they work harder together and are often
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
User Adoption Momentum of E Banking In Malaysia
User Adoption Momentum of E Banking In Malaysia In the era of globalization and with the increasing competition in all the fields around the world many companies have modified their strategies so they can reach their customers around the world easier and cheaper. However the rapid growth of systems that rely on electronic technology especially those relating to the Internet and personal computer- led to a significant change in the exchanging of products and services. Many Service organizations have adopted modern technology to reduce costs and enhance customer service quality, delivery, and standardize core service offerings. In addition a lot of non-banking companies entered the banking industry by offering products and financial services, giving the customers a lot of options and alternatives to carry out their banking transactions, this difficulty of the business process in the financial sector forces the banks to develop an alternative technological channel to attract customers and improve their perception. The rapid technological diffusion makes the internet the best way to provide customers with banking services regardless of the limits of time and geography. And thats what makes banks consider the internet as an important part of their strategic plans. Internet technology has changed the design and the way of delivering the financial services and as a result the banking industry has made continuous innovations especially in the field of communications and information technology that ultimately led to the emergence of the idea of what is known as the online banking. Banking services through the internet is a way to keep the existing customers and attract others to the bank, In this paper we define online banking as an internet portal, through which customers can use different kinds of banking services ranging from bill payment to making investments (Pikkarainen et al., 2004). Compared to the traditional approach, online banking is an inexpensive straightforward way to conduct banking business, exchange of personalized information and buying and selling goods and services from any place at any time. Despite the many benefits provided by this service to the bank and its customers, it remains a double-edged sword and not used by every customer, because the increasing distance between the bank and customers may lead to lack of confidence and an increasing in security concerns. As a result, the quality of electronic banking services become an important area of attention among the researchers and banks managers due to its strong influence on the business performance, lower costs, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profitability (Seth et al., 2004). The main objective of this study is to focus on the importance of understanding the customers perception about internet banking by investigating and measuring the impact of selected factors such as perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), security and privacy (PC) and how they can influence the customer acceptance to conduct banking transactions via the internet, Based on the empirical data collected from individual customers in Bahrain. In the next section we will give some background information about the internet banking sector and review the relevant literature in this area, the following section describes the research methodology, which is then followed by the data analysis and the results from the survey, The paper concludes with a discussion, outlining the implications of the findings and the limitations of the study. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) External variables Perceived usefulness Perceived ease of use Behavioral intention Actual system use Figure 1: The original Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989) The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is a perfect model which show how users accept and use a technology. In (TAM) the main determinants of users acceptance of new technology are perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) (Davis, 1989). Although (Chen and Barnes 2007; T.C. Edwin Cheng et al. 2006) found that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and security and privacy affect customer adaptation intentions, Qureshi et al., (2008) claimed that Perceived usefulness, security and privacy are the main perusing factors to accept online banking system. Celik (2008) stated that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are direct determinants of customers attitudes towards using internet Banking. Traditional service quality and website features (PU, PEOU and PC) that give customers confidence build trust in e-banking (Yap, K et al. 2010). Aderonke and Charles. (2010) found that Banks customers who are active users of e-Banking system use it because it is convenient, easy to use, time saving and appropriate for their transaction needs. Also the network security and the security of the system in terms of privacy are the major concerns of the users and constitute hindrance to intending users. Yap, K et al. (2010) claimed that Traditional service quality and website features that give customers confidence build trust in e-banking. Sadeghi and Hanzaee. (2010) found that According to the model of seven factors on the following dimensions: convenience, accessibility, accuracy, security, usefulness, bank image, and web site design. Some of these factors illustrate a significant statistical difference between males and females. Safeena et al. (2009) found that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, consumer awareness and perceived risk are the important determinants of online banking adoption. These factors have a strong and positive effect on customers to accept online banking system. Alda ´s-Manzano et al. (2009) found that TAM beliefs and perceived risks (security, privacy, performance and social) have a direct influence on e-banking adoption. Trust appears as a key variable that reduces perceived risk. Involvement plays an important role in increasing perceived ease of use. Riyadh et al. (2009) stated that Seven variables affecting e-banking adoption by SMEs are identified. They are: organizational capabilities, perceived benefits, perceived credibility, perceived regulatory support, ICT industries readiness, lack of financial institutions readiness and institutional influence. Al-Somali et al. (2009) found that the quality of the Internet connection, the awareness of online banking and its benefits, the social influence and computer self-efficacy have significant effects on the perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) of online banking acceptance. Education, trust and resistance to change also have significant impact on the attitude towards the likelihood of adopting online banking. Jahangir N. and Begum N. (2008) noted that perceived usefulness, ease of use, security and privacy, and customer attitude are significantly and positively related to customer adaptation. Hanudin Amin. (2007) found that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived credibility had a significant relationship with behavioral intention. Further, these measures are good determinant for undergraduate acceptance for internet banking. Results also suggest that PU and PEOU had a significant relationship with computer self-efficacy. Z Liao and WK Wong. (2008) found that perceived usefulness, ease of use, security, responsiveness and convenience significantly influence customer interactions with Internet e-banking. In particular, individuals would place a great emphasis on the security of Internet-based financial transactions. As a conventional practice, commercial banks and financial institutions must continuously review security policy and strengthen the security control of Internet e-banking Wai-Ching Poon. (2008) found that all elements for ten identified factors are significant with respect to the users adoption of e-banking services. Privacy and security are the major sources of dissatisfaction, which have momentously impacted users satisfaction. Meanwhile, accessibility, convenience, design and content are sources of satisfaction. Besides, the speed, product features availability, and reasonable service fees and charges, as well as the banks operations management factor are critical to the success of the e-banks. WAP, GPRS and 3G features from mobile devices are of no significance or influence in the adoption of e-banking services in this study. Results also reveal that privacy; security and convenience factors play an important role in determining the users acceptance of e-banking services with respect to different segmentation of age group, education level and income level. Padachi et al. (2007) found that the most significant factor is ease of use and that other important elements featured reluctance to change, trust and relationship in banker, cost of computers, internet accessibility, convenience of use, and security concerns. Chen, Y. H. and Barnes, S. (2007) pointed out that perceived usefulness, perceived security, perceived privacy, perceived good reputation, and willingness to customize are the important antecedents to online initial trust. It is also discovered that different levels of trust propensity moderate perceptions toward the web site and online with respect to online initial trust, including perceived usefulness, perceived security, perceived privacy, perceived good reputation, and willingness to customize. Both online initial trust and familiarity with online purchasing have a positive impact on purchase intention. T.C. Edwin Cheng et al. (2006) found that The results provide support of the extended TAM model and confirm its robustness in predicting customers intention of adoption of IB. This study contributes to the literature by formulating and validating TAM to predict IB adoption, and its findings provide useful information for bank management in formulating IB marketing strategies. We analyzed the data using Structured Equation Modeling (SEM) to evaluate the strength of the hypothesized relationships, if any, among the constructs, which include Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Web Security as independent variables, Perceived Usefulness and Attitude as intervening variables, and Intention to Use as the dependent variable. The results provide support of the extended TAM model and confirm its robustness in predicting customers intention of adoption of IB Moutaz Abou-Robieh. (2005) found that there was a correlation between respondents attitudes towards e-banking and their comfort level and feeling of security with regard to their age, level of education, and annual salary. 2.1 Perceived ease of use (PEOU) Safeena et al. (2009), Jahangir N. and Begum N. (2008), Z Liao and WK Wong. (2008) and Amin. (2007) stated that perceived ease of use have a strong and positive influence on customers intention to adopt and use internet banking. 2.2 Perceived usefulness (PU) Several studies showed that perceived usefulness influence customer interactions with internet banking, which effect the adoption of e-banking services (Sadeghi and Hanzaee. 2010; Safeena et al. 2009; Al-Somali et al. 2009; Jahangir N. and Begum N. 2008; Hanudin Amin. 2007, Z Liao and WK Wong.2008 ). 2.3 Perceived credibility (PC) Previous research has shown that security and privacy are the most concern for consumer, which have a direct or indirect influence on e-banking adoption (Aderonke and Charles, 2010; Sadeghi and Hanzaee, 2010; Alda ´s-Manzano et al., 2009; Riyadh et al. 2009; Jahangir N. and Begum N., 2008; Z Liao and WK Wong., 2008). Privacy put barriers on using online services (Hernandez and Mazzon, 2007). Moreover, Wai-Ching Poon. (2008) and Moutaz Abou-Robieh. (2005) noted that privacy and security factors play an important role in determining the users acceptance of e-banking services with regard to age, education level and income level. 3.CHALLENGES 4.1 RESEARCH MODEL AND HYPOTHESES The model of the study is presented below: Perceived usefulness Perceived ease of use Perceived credibility Intention to use Electronic Banking The representation of the proposed framework depicted the pattern and structure of relationships between the set of the measured variables. The purpose of the study is to measure correlations among variables and then use it to identify whether any relationships exists between these measured variables or not. We will extended TAM and add PC into the framework to test the effect of these three factors on e-banking adaption. In the extended model of TAM study, like (Safeena et al. 2009; Alda ´s-Manzano et al. (2009); Hanudin Amin, 2007), the attitudes factor has been neglected to simplify the model. The present study investigated the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived credibility and customer intention to use electronic banking in Bahrain. Here perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived credibility, were being considered as independent variables and customer intention to use electronic banking was being considered as a dependent variable. Perceived usefulness According to the Davis (1989) and Davis et al. (1989), perceived usefulness is the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance. Perceived usefulness is defined as the individuals perception that using the new technology will enhance or improve her/his performance (Davis,1993). In Addition, Laforet and Li, (2005) and Eriksson et al., (2005) defined the term perceived usefulness as the subjective probability that using the technology would improve the way a user could complete. We hypothesize that People tend to use an application to the extent they believe it will aid their performance. H1: Perceived usefulness (PU) has a positive effect on customer Intention to use Electronic banking. Perceived ease of use According to Davis (1989) perceived ease of use refers to the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort. The most significant factor on adoption Internet Banking is ease of use. (Padachi et al., 2007). Hence an application perceived to be easier to use than another is more likely to be accepted by users. And By applying these to electronic banking context we can hypothesize that: H2: Perceived ease of use (PEOU) has a positive effect on customer Intention to use Electronic banking. Perceived Credibility Perceived credibility is defined as the degree to which a user feels the certainty and pleasant consequences of using an electronic application service, when there is no financial risk, physical risk, functional risk, social risk, time-loss risk, opportunity cost risk, and information risk Jacoby and Kaplan (1972). However, (Ganesan,1994) present another definition of PC stating it as the extent to which one partner believes that the other partner has the required expertise to perform the job effectively and reliably. PC is usually impersonal and relies on reputation, information and economic reasoning (Ba and Pavlou,2002). Wang et al. (2003) stated that perceived credibility is consists of two important elements namely privacy and security, which affect directly consumer adaptation of electronic banking systems. Security refers to the protection of information or systems from unauthorized intrusions (Egwali, 2008). For the purpose of this research, perceived credibility (PC) is defined as users perception of protection of their transaction details and personal data against unauthorized access. Therefore, for studying the effect of perceived credibility on users acceptance in Bahrain electronic banking services, we pose the following hypothesis to determine it effect on users intention H3: perceived credibility has positive effect on customer Intention to use Electronic banking. 4. Methodology To assess the factors influencing the intention to use internet banking in Bahrain, a survey was conducted during the last quarter of year 2010. A Questionnaire were designed and distributed to retail users of banking services of different age group and of different educational level attained across the island. Survey Instrument The questionnaire we prepared for this exercise was divided into 2 sections. The first section concentrates on the general profile of the respondent including his/her age group, education level and profession and income group. In the second section we were interested in finding the factors affecting the customer intention to use internet banking in Bahrain. The respondents were provided with a list of 10 questions; 4 questions on perceived usefulness, 2 questions on perceived ease of use, 3 questions on perceived credibility and finally 1 question on intention to use. The participants were asked to indicate their perception on a likert scales (1- 5) with response ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The collected data were analyzed based on correlation and regression analyses using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 17computer program. Data collection The questionnaires were distributed directly among the customers through the researchers friends and relatives, a sample of 400 people was randomly chosen from the Bahraini community, all participants were bank customers selected randomly from universities, malls, Internet cafÃÆ' ©s and businessmen from private and public sectors. Also A digital online form was created using Google Documents in the same questionnaire style, Then the link was shared and publicized to Bahrainis through email as well as posting it on discussion forums. Once a subject would answer the questionnaire, the raw data will automatically be logged in a spreadsheet which can be only accessed and downloaded by the researcher. Since the questionnaire form was to be submitted online it guaranteed two things: First, it targeted people who really access the internet. Second, because all questions are need to be answered before submitting. The collection of data will be done automatically, efficiently and there wont be any loss of data The questionnaire we prepared and used had been pre-tested initially with a few number of people (5 users) working in different sectors to ensure consistency, clarity and relevance to the Bahraini case, Minor changes (related to the questions content, wording, sequence) were requested by those people, which we implemented before carrying out the final copy. A total of 200 useable responses were obtained yielding a response rate of 50% (200/400). Demographic profile of respondents: variable category Frequency Valid Percentage Age 18 25 25 35 35 45 45 yrs and above Gender Male Female Education Secondary and below Diploma Bachelor High studies Occupation Government sector Private Sector Self-employment Others Monthly Income in BD Less than 500 500-1000 1000 and above Assumptions or Limitations For this research, the following limitation existed in the collection of data, the survey assumed that the respondents have some familiarity with banks and banking transactions and have been exposed to or have knowledge of the existence of e-banking alternatives. For these responses in particular, it was difficult to ensure the true validity of the responses or the identity of the respondent. REFERENCES Aderonke and Charles. (2010). An Empirical Investigation of the Level of Users Acceptance of E-Banking in Nigeria. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, vol. 15 (1). Al-Somali, S.A., Gholami, R. and Clegg, B.(2009). An investigation into the acceptance of online banking in Saudi Arabia. Technovation, vol. 29, pp.130-141. Al Nahian Riyadh, Md. Shahriar Akter , Nayeema Islam. (2009). The adoption of e-banking in developing countries: A theoretical model for SMEs. International Review of Business Research Papers, vol. 5 (6), pp.212-230. Ba, S. and Pavlou, P.A (2002). Evidence of the effect of trust building technology in electronic market: price premiums and buyer behavior.MIS Quarterly, vol. 26 (3), pp. 243-68. Celik, H. (2008). What Determines Turkish customers acceptance of internet banking? International Journal of Bank Marketing. Vol. 26 (5): 353-370. Chen, Y. H. and Barnes, S. (2007), Initial Trust and Online Buyer Behaviour, Industrial Management Data Systems, 107(1): 21-36. Davis, F. D. (1989), Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology, MIS Quarterly,13 (3): 319-339. Davis, F. D., Bagozzi, R. P. and Warshaw, P. R. (1989), User Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Models, Management Science, 35(8): 982-1003. Davis, F. D. (1993). User acceptance of information technology: system characteristics, user perceptions and behavioral impacts. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies,38, 475-487. Davis, F. D., Bagozzi, R. P., Warshaw, P. R. (1992). Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to use computers in the workplace. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22(14), 1109-1130. Egwali A. O., Customer Perception of Security Indicators in Online Banking Sites in Nigeria, Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, December 2008, vol. 13, no.3. Eriksson K, Kerem K, Nilsson D (2005). Customer acceptance of internet banking in Estonia, International Journal of Bank Market, vol. 23 (2), pp. 200-216. Ganesan, S.(1994), Determinants of long-term orientation in buyer-seller relationships. Journal of Marketing, Vol.58 (2), pp.1-19 Hanudin Amin (2007). Internet Banking Adoption Among Young Intellectuals. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, December 2007, vol. 12 (3) Jacoby, J., Kaplan, L. B. (1972). The components of perceived risk. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference of the Association for Consumer Research, College Park, MD. Joaquin Alda ´s-Manzano, Carlos Lassala-Navarre, Carla Ruiz-Mafe and Silvia Sanz-Blas. (2009). Key drivers of internet banking services use , Online Information Review, Vol. 33 (4), pp. 672-695. Laforet S, Li X (2005). Consumers attitudes towards online and mobile banking in China. International Journal Bank Market vol. 23 (5), pp. 362-380. Moutaz Abou-Robieh. (2005). A Study of E-Banking Security Perceptions and Customer Satisfaction Issues. Nadim Jahangir and Noorjahan Begum. (2008). The role of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, security and privacy, and customer attitude to engender customer adaptation in the context of electronic banking. African Journal of Business Management, vol.2 (1), pp. 032-040. Padachi, Rojid, Seetanah.(2007). Analyzing the Factors that Influence the Adoption of Internet Banking in Mauritius. Patrick, T. (2002). Corporate Privacy Credibility Crumbles. Computer world, March, 4(10). Pikkarainen, T., Pikkarainen, K., Karijaluoto, H. and Pahnila, S. (2004), Customer acceptance of on-line banking: an extension of the technology acceptance model, Internet Research, vol. 14(3), pp. 224-235 Qureshi, T.M., Zafar, M.K and Khan, M.B. (2008). Customer Acceptance of Online Banking in Developing Economies. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, Vol. 13 (1). Safeena, Abdullah and Hema. ( 2010). Customer Perspectives on E-business Value: Case Study on Internet Banking. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, vol. 15 (1). Seth, N., S.G. Deshmukh and P. Vrat, 2004. Service quality models: A review, International Journal Quality and Reliability Management, vol. 22(9), pp. 36-51. T.C. Edwin Cheng, David Y.C. Lam and Andy C.L. Yeung. (2006) Adoption of internet banking: An empirical study in Hong Kong. Decision Support Systems, vol. 42 (3), pp 1558-1572 Tooraj Sadeghi and Kambiz Heidarzadeh Hanzaee. (2010). Customer satisfaction factors (CSFs) with online banking services in an Islamic country I.R. Iran. Journal of Islamic Marketing, vol. 1 (3), pp. 249-267 Wai-Ching Poon . (2008). Users adoption of e-banking services. Journal of Business Industrial Marketing, vol. 23 (1), pp. 59-69 Wang, Y., Lin, H., Tang, T. (2003). Determinants of user acceptance of internet banking: an empirical study. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 14(5), 501-519 Yap, K., D. Wong, C. Loh, and R. Bak (2010). Offline and online banking where to draw the line when building trust in e-banking. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 28(1), p.27-46 Z Liao and WK Wong. ( 2008). The determinants of customer interactions with internet-enabled e-banking services. Journal of the Operational Research Society, vol. 59 (9). User Adoption Momentum of E Banking In Malaysia User Adoption Momentum of E Banking In Malaysia In the era of globalization and with the increasing competition in all the fields around the world many companies have modified their strategies so they can reach their customers around the world easier and cheaper. However the rapid growth of systems that rely on electronic technology especially those relating to the Internet and personal computer- led to a significant change in the exchanging of products and services. Many Service organizations have adopted modern technology to reduce costs and enhance customer service quality, delivery, and standardize core service offerings. In addition a lot of non-banking companies entered the banking industry by offering products and financial services, giving the customers a lot of options and alternatives to carry out their banking transactions, this difficulty of the business process in the financial sector forces the banks to develop an alternative technological channel to attract customers and improve their perception. The rapid technological diffusion makes the internet the best way to provide customers with banking services regardless of the limits of time and geography. And thats what makes banks consider the internet as an important part of their strategic plans. Internet technology has changed the design and the way of delivering the financial services and as a result the banking industry has made continuous innovations especially in the field of communications and information technology that ultimately led to the emergence of the idea of what is known as the online banking. Banking services through the internet is a way to keep the existing customers and attract others to the bank, In this paper we define online banking as an internet portal, through which customers can use different kinds of banking services ranging from bill payment to making investments (Pikkarainen et al., 2004). Compared to the traditional approach, online banking is an inexpensive straightforward way to conduct banking business, exchange of personalized information and buying and selling goods and services from any place at any time. Despite the many benefits provided by this service to the bank and its customers, it remains a double-edged sword and not used by every customer, because the increasing distance between the bank and customers may lead to lack of confidence and an increasing in security concerns. As a result, the quality of electronic banking services become an important area of attention among the researchers and banks managers due to its strong influence on the business performance, lower costs, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profitability (Seth et al., 2004). The main objective of this study is to focus on the importance of understanding the customers perception about internet banking by investigating and measuring the impact of selected factors such as perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), security and privacy (PC) and how they can influence the customer acceptance to conduct banking transactions via the internet, Based on the empirical data collected from individual customers in Bahrain. In the next section we will give some background information about the internet banking sector and review the relevant literature in this area, the following section describes the research methodology, which is then followed by the data analysis and the results from the survey, The paper concludes with a discussion, outlining the implications of the findings and the limitations of the study. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) External variables Perceived usefulness Perceived ease of use Behavioral intention Actual system use Figure 1: The original Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989) The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is a perfect model which show how users accept and use a technology. In (TAM) the main determinants of users acceptance of new technology are perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) (Davis, 1989). Although (Chen and Barnes 2007; T.C. Edwin Cheng et al. 2006) found that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and security and privacy affect customer adaptation intentions, Qureshi et al., (2008) claimed that Perceived usefulness, security and privacy are the main perusing factors to accept online banking system. Celik (2008) stated that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are direct determinants of customers attitudes towards using internet Banking. Traditional service quality and website features (PU, PEOU and PC) that give customers confidence build trust in e-banking (Yap, K et al. 2010). Aderonke and Charles. (2010) found that Banks customers who are active users of e-Banking system use it because it is convenient, easy to use, time saving and appropriate for their transaction needs. Also the network security and the security of the system in terms of privacy are the major concerns of the users and constitute hindrance to intending users. Yap, K et al. (2010) claimed that Traditional service quality and website features that give customers confidence build trust in e-banking. Sadeghi and Hanzaee. (2010) found that According to the model of seven factors on the following dimensions: convenience, accessibility, accuracy, security, usefulness, bank image, and web site design. Some of these factors illustrate a significant statistical difference between males and females. Safeena et al. (2009) found that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, consumer awareness and perceived risk are the important determinants of online banking adoption. These factors have a strong and positive effect on customers to accept online banking system. Alda ´s-Manzano et al. (2009) found that TAM beliefs and perceived risks (security, privacy, performance and social) have a direct influence on e-banking adoption. Trust appears as a key variable that reduces perceived risk. Involvement plays an important role in increasing perceived ease of use. Riyadh et al. (2009) stated that Seven variables affecting e-banking adoption by SMEs are identified. They are: organizational capabilities, perceived benefits, perceived credibility, perceived regulatory support, ICT industries readiness, lack of financial institutions readiness and institutional influence. Al-Somali et al. (2009) found that the quality of the Internet connection, the awareness of online banking and its benefits, the social influence and computer self-efficacy have significant effects on the perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) of online banking acceptance. Education, trust and resistance to change also have significant impact on the attitude towards the likelihood of adopting online banking. Jahangir N. and Begum N. (2008) noted that perceived usefulness, ease of use, security and privacy, and customer attitude are significantly and positively related to customer adaptation. Hanudin Amin. (2007) found that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived credibility had a significant relationship with behavioral intention. Further, these measures are good determinant for undergraduate acceptance for internet banking. Results also suggest that PU and PEOU had a significant relationship with computer self-efficacy. Z Liao and WK Wong. (2008) found that perceived usefulness, ease of use, security, responsiveness and convenience significantly influence customer interactions with Internet e-banking. In particular, individuals would place a great emphasis on the security of Internet-based financial transactions. As a conventional practice, commercial banks and financial institutions must continuously review security policy and strengthen the security control of Internet e-banking Wai-Ching Poon. (2008) found that all elements for ten identified factors are significant with respect to the users adoption of e-banking services. Privacy and security are the major sources of dissatisfaction, which have momentously impacted users satisfaction. Meanwhile, accessibility, convenience, design and content are sources of satisfaction. Besides, the speed, product features availability, and reasonable service fees and charges, as well as the banks operations management factor are critical to the success of the e-banks. WAP, GPRS and 3G features from mobile devices are of no significance or influence in the adoption of e-banking services in this study. Results also reveal that privacy; security and convenience factors play an important role in determining the users acceptance of e-banking services with respect to different segmentation of age group, education level and income level. Padachi et al. (2007) found that the most significant factor is ease of use and that other important elements featured reluctance to change, trust and relationship in banker, cost of computers, internet accessibility, convenience of use, and security concerns. Chen, Y. H. and Barnes, S. (2007) pointed out that perceived usefulness, perceived security, perceived privacy, perceived good reputation, and willingness to customize are the important antecedents to online initial trust. It is also discovered that different levels of trust propensity moderate perceptions toward the web site and online with respect to online initial trust, including perceived usefulness, perceived security, perceived privacy, perceived good reputation, and willingness to customize. Both online initial trust and familiarity with online purchasing have a positive impact on purchase intention. T.C. Edwin Cheng et al. (2006) found that The results provide support of the extended TAM model and confirm its robustness in predicting customers intention of adoption of IB. This study contributes to the literature by formulating and validating TAM to predict IB adoption, and its findings provide useful information for bank management in formulating IB marketing strategies. We analyzed the data using Structured Equation Modeling (SEM) to evaluate the strength of the hypothesized relationships, if any, among the constructs, which include Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Web Security as independent variables, Perceived Usefulness and Attitude as intervening variables, and Intention to Use as the dependent variable. The results provide support of the extended TAM model and confirm its robustness in predicting customers intention of adoption of IB Moutaz Abou-Robieh. (2005) found that there was a correlation between respondents attitudes towards e-banking and their comfort level and feeling of security with regard to their age, level of education, and annual salary. 2.1 Perceived ease of use (PEOU) Safeena et al. (2009), Jahangir N. and Begum N. (2008), Z Liao and WK Wong. (2008) and Amin. (2007) stated that perceived ease of use have a strong and positive influence on customers intention to adopt and use internet banking. 2.2 Perceived usefulness (PU) Several studies showed that perceived usefulness influence customer interactions with internet banking, which effect the adoption of e-banking services (Sadeghi and Hanzaee. 2010; Safeena et al. 2009; Al-Somali et al. 2009; Jahangir N. and Begum N. 2008; Hanudin Amin. 2007, Z Liao and WK Wong.2008 ). 2.3 Perceived credibility (PC) Previous research has shown that security and privacy are the most concern for consumer, which have a direct or indirect influence on e-banking adoption (Aderonke and Charles, 2010; Sadeghi and Hanzaee, 2010; Alda ´s-Manzano et al., 2009; Riyadh et al. 2009; Jahangir N. and Begum N., 2008; Z Liao and WK Wong., 2008). Privacy put barriers on using online services (Hernandez and Mazzon, 2007). Moreover, Wai-Ching Poon. (2008) and Moutaz Abou-Robieh. (2005) noted that privacy and security factors play an important role in determining the users acceptance of e-banking services with regard to age, education level and income level. 3.CHALLENGES 4.1 RESEARCH MODEL AND HYPOTHESES The model of the study is presented below: Perceived usefulness Perceived ease of use Perceived credibility Intention to use Electronic Banking The representation of the proposed framework depicted the pattern and structure of relationships between the set of the measured variables. The purpose of the study is to measure correlations among variables and then use it to identify whether any relationships exists between these measured variables or not. We will extended TAM and add PC into the framework to test the effect of these three factors on e-banking adaption. In the extended model of TAM study, like (Safeena et al. 2009; Alda ´s-Manzano et al. (2009); Hanudin Amin, 2007), the attitudes factor has been neglected to simplify the model. The present study investigated the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived credibility and customer intention to use electronic banking in Bahrain. Here perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived credibility, were being considered as independent variables and customer intention to use electronic banking was being considered as a dependent variable. Perceived usefulness According to the Davis (1989) and Davis et al. (1989), perceived usefulness is the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance. Perceived usefulness is defined as the individuals perception that using the new technology will enhance or improve her/his performance (Davis,1993). In Addition, Laforet and Li, (2005) and Eriksson et al., (2005) defined the term perceived usefulness as the subjective probability that using the technology would improve the way a user could complete. We hypothesize that People tend to use an application to the extent they believe it will aid their performance. H1: Perceived usefulness (PU) has a positive effect on customer Intention to use Electronic banking. Perceived ease of use According to Davis (1989) perceived ease of use refers to the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort. The most significant factor on adoption Internet Banking is ease of use. (Padachi et al., 2007). Hence an application perceived to be easier to use than another is more likely to be accepted by users. And By applying these to electronic banking context we can hypothesize that: H2: Perceived ease of use (PEOU) has a positive effect on customer Intention to use Electronic banking. Perceived Credibility Perceived credibility is defined as the degree to which a user feels the certainty and pleasant consequences of using an electronic application service, when there is no financial risk, physical risk, functional risk, social risk, time-loss risk, opportunity cost risk, and information risk Jacoby and Kaplan (1972). However, (Ganesan,1994) present another definition of PC stating it as the extent to which one partner believes that the other partner has the required expertise to perform the job effectively and reliably. PC is usually impersonal and relies on reputation, information and economic reasoning (Ba and Pavlou,2002). Wang et al. (2003) stated that perceived credibility is consists of two important elements namely privacy and security, which affect directly consumer adaptation of electronic banking systems. Security refers to the protection of information or systems from unauthorized intrusions (Egwali, 2008). For the purpose of this research, perceived credibility (PC) is defined as users perception of protection of their transaction details and personal data against unauthorized access. Therefore, for studying the effect of perceived credibility on users acceptance in Bahrain electronic banking services, we pose the following hypothesis to determine it effect on users intention H3: perceived credibility has positive effect on customer Intention to use Electronic banking. 4. Methodology To assess the factors influencing the intention to use internet banking in Bahrain, a survey was conducted during the last quarter of year 2010. A Questionnaire were designed and distributed to retail users of banking services of different age group and of different educational level attained across the island. Survey Instrument The questionnaire we prepared for this exercise was divided into 2 sections. The first section concentrates on the general profile of the respondent including his/her age group, education level and profession and income group. In the second section we were interested in finding the factors affecting the customer intention to use internet banking in Bahrain. The respondents were provided with a list of 10 questions; 4 questions on perceived usefulness, 2 questions on perceived ease of use, 3 questions on perceived credibility and finally 1 question on intention to use. The participants were asked to indicate their perception on a likert scales (1- 5) with response ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The collected data were analyzed based on correlation and regression analyses using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 17computer program. Data collection The questionnaires were distributed directly among the customers through the researchers friends and relatives, a sample of 400 people was randomly chosen from the Bahraini community, all participants were bank customers selected randomly from universities, malls, Internet cafÃÆ' ©s and businessmen from private and public sectors. Also A digital online form was created using Google Documents in the same questionnaire style, Then the link was shared and publicized to Bahrainis through email as well as posting it on discussion forums. Once a subject would answer the questionnaire, the raw data will automatically be logged in a spreadsheet which can be only accessed and downloaded by the researcher. Since the questionnaire form was to be submitted online it guaranteed two things: First, it targeted people who really access the internet. Second, because all questions are need to be answered before submitting. The collection of data will be done automatically, efficiently and there wont be any loss of data The questionnaire we prepared and used had been pre-tested initially with a few number of people (5 users) working in different sectors to ensure consistency, clarity and relevance to the Bahraini case, Minor changes (related to the questions content, wording, sequence) were requested by those people, which we implemented before carrying out the final copy. A total of 200 useable responses were obtained yielding a response rate of 50% (200/400). Demographic profile of respondents: variable category Frequency Valid Percentage Age 18 25 25 35 35 45 45 yrs and above Gender Male Female Education Secondary and below Diploma Bachelor High studies Occupation Government sector Private Sector Self-employment Others Monthly Income in BD Less than 500 500-1000 1000 and above Assumptions or Limitations For this research, the following limitation existed in the collection of data, the survey assumed that the respondents have some familiarity with banks and banking transactions and have been exposed to or have knowledge of the existence of e-banking alternatives. For these responses in particular, it was difficult to ensure the true validity of the responses or the identity of the respondent. REFERENCES Aderonke and Charles. (2010). An Empirical Investigation of the Level of Users Acceptance of E-Banking in Nigeria. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, vol. 15 (1). Al-Somali, S.A., Gholami, R. and Clegg, B.(2009). 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