How to Build an Amazon Affiliate Store on WordPress

Interested in launching an e-commerce store, but dont have a ton of capital that you can use to buy inventory? Heres what you can do consider setting up an Amazon affiliate store on WordPress, as opposed to a regular e-commerce store.With an Amazon affiliate store, you dont need to worry about (or invest in):Product development.Shipping.Customer service.Or other operational tasks. (For inspiration, check out this Amazon affiliate store, which made $40k+/month without relying on paid traffic, or this store, which was acquired for a cool $33 million.)Ok, were not actually promising you that youll be a millionaire  right away. But Amazon affiliate stores are definitely a viable way to make money on the  Internet.Ready to learn how to build your first ever Amazon affiliate store on WordPress? Lets get started!Amazon affiliate stores vs traditional e-commerce storesThe beauty of Amazon affiliate stores on WordPress is that they allow you to get started with e-commerce, without quite committing.With traditional e-commerce stores, you need to go all in. This means sourcing your products, importing them, packaging them, and then shipping them out when youve received an order.With Amazon affiliate stores, all you do is  publish content which will drive sales on Amazons website.Heres a demo of an Amazon link that achieves that:Your visitor browses through your site, and when they see something they like, they can click on your affiliate link and be redirected to Amazon.Because your visitor is now browsing Amazon through your affiliate link, Amazon can track their purchases and attribute them to you.If your visitor makes a purchase on Amazon within the specified time period (this can range from 24 hours to 90 days), youll get a commission.Sounds easy enough, right?Signing up for Amazons Affiliate ProgramThe first step to creating your own Amazon affiliate store on WordPress is to sign up for Amazons affiliate program.You can do that by clicking on this link!Once yo uve submitted your application, youll need to wait for Amazon to approve your profile. In the meantime, you can get started on selecting the products to feature in your store!Tips on choosing products for your Amazon affiliate storeHere are a few things to keep in mind when deciding what items youd like to promote on your Amazon affiliate store.First, you shouldnt be promoting anything thats too cheap.Theres no hard and fast rule, but I like to  stick with items which are $50 and above.  This gives you a way better margin than if you were to promote, say, a pair of socks which costs $5.Secondly, try and go with products which are high in demand.There are several ways you can gauge demandFirstly, there are tools (such as JungleScout!)  which enable you to filter products on Amazon according to demand, estimated sales, seasonality, and more.Alternatively, Google Trends  is a free tool that allows you to look at past trends and predict demand pretty accurately.Now that you know what items you want to feature on your store, lets jump into the next section getting your store up and running!Building an Amazon affiliate store on WordPressThere are a few ways to go about building an Amazon affiliate store, but the easiest (and cheapest!) way is to use WordPress.In short, youll need to set up your WordPress site,  then use a plugin to add Amazon products to your store. This link  will teach you how to do the former; once youre done, read on for the latter!Adding products to your store using the WooCommerce pluginHeres where the fun starts! Youll need to install the free WooCommerce plugin and start adding affiliate products to your store. WooCommerce Author(s): AutomatticCurrent Version: 3.7.1Last Updated: October 9, 2019woocommerce.3.7.1.zip 92%Ratings 77,312,503Downloads WP 4.9+Requires First, navigate to your Plugins page on your WordPress dashboard.Search for the WooCommerce plugin, and install and activate it.WooCommerce will now prompt you to set up your store.Fill in all the required information and once you reach the last step, youll see the Create a product button. Go ahead and click on it:Youll be taken to an Add new product page where you can input your product name, product description, and more details.Heres the important bit:Make sure you specify that this is an External/Affiliate product, instead of a regular product.Once you choose the External/Affiliate option, youll see new Product URL and Button text fields.To get your product URL, youll have to navigate to the dashboard on your Amazon Associates account. Search for the product in question, and click on the yellow Get link button. Then copy the URL, and return to your WordPress page to paste the URL in.You can experiment with your button text  further down the road, but whilst youre still getting started, I recommend sticking with something safe such as your standard Buy now or Shop now.Directly below the Button Text field are your Regular price and Sale p rice fields, which you can ignore. Amazons affiliate program policy states that affiliates should not manually enter price information, so just leave this blank.Two more steps, and then youre done:First, add your product image and product gallery images.Theres no hard and fast rule when it comes to your key product image you can either use a product shot with a white background (if youre going for a clean, minimalist look), or a lifestyle shot which features your product in a particular context.Next, add a short description for your product.This will be displayed on your stores front page, as well as its search results.Thats basically it hit the Publish button, and youll have added your first product to your Amazon affiliate store!Now, rinse and repeat till youve gotten all your products up, and youre all set.A final word on Amazon affiliate storesBecause you can get Amazon affiliate stores on WordPress up and running in no time, these are great for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to try their hand at e-commerce, but arent quite ready to quit their day job just yet.Itching to set up your first Amazon affiliate store on WordPress? Go ahead and sign up for Amazons affiliate program  now.Is there anything thats still a mystery when it comes to these Amazon affiliate stores? Feel free to ask in the comments. How to create an #Amazon #affiliate store on #WordPress

Van Hilleary. essays

Van Hilleary. essays If Van Hilleary had made it through pilot training, he might not be running for governor. Piloting aircraft is what the 4th District congressman really wanted to do after graduating from the University of Tennessee and being commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. But he didn't "juggle" multi-tasks as quickly as he needed to, he said. So when he didn't succeed as a pilot, he stayed in the Air Force reserves and completed navigational training. And therein may be the foundation of the front-runner in the Republican primary for the state's chief executive officer. He doesn't make snap decisions, explained Jennifer Coxe, his press secretary. Some might see that as a weakness. Coxe sees it as Hilleary's strongest attribute. "He takes input from everybody and weighs it. Then he makes a decision," she said. On the campaign trail, Hilleary, 43, tends to stick to issues that a new governor will face in education, TennCare, economic development and the budget. He's established task forces to advise him. But get a few moments with him and wife Meredith over appetizers and iced tea at the Tennessee Grill or a stroll around Ayres Hall on the University of Tennessee campus - two of their favorite spots - and insight into his life becomes clearer. The couple met in Washington, D.C., where she was a congressional aide. She has since obtained a master's degree in education at UT. After getting a bachelor's degree at UT, Hilleary worked briefly in the family textile business at Spring City in Rhea County, returned to UT for graduate school, then decided to go to law school at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. "I was searching for a new direction," he said. He ended up volunteering for assignments in Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the 1990s. He served as navigator on one rescue mission tha t resulted in a national award for the plane's crew, but Hilleary didn't mention that during an interview. ...

History of olympic games Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

History of olympic games - Term Paper Example stivals, and by universal agreement, the best.†(12) What athletic prowess has to do with nakedness is not clear from the scientific perspective, and it is mostly an issue of faith. The system in vogue then was, the Spartan messages were particularly carried by naked runners and they ran between the city-states. Travel light was one of the purposes of their nakedness and also to prove that they did not carry anything unlawful except the message. Thus they were able to run one hundred miles in one day, ensuring the speedy delivery of the messages. Training athletes began with gymnastic exercises a month before the Olympics were to commence. Total nakedness was considered as homage to the gods and gratitude for the male form. It was sort of a security check that women camouflaged as males did not participate in the games. The procedure at the starting point of the race differed much as compared to the present practice in vogue. Twenty contenders stood erect with their arms extended in front of them. The race would be re-run, if the first resulted in a tie. Peace was the watchword during the ancient Olympic Games. It was known as â€Å"ekecheiria†, meaning â€Å"holding of hands.† Safety of the competitors and spectators was assured and all wars, mutual threats and capital punishment stood suspended during the course of games. The ancient Olympic Games were linked to warfare as per the specially adopted procedure. The participants would run 800 yards in full body armor. Thus it was a competition of strength clubbed with speed. That was also to remind all concerned about the physical demands of warfare. In the 3nd century AD, virgins were allowed entry to the Olympic Games as spectators. But for the married women traced watching the game, it was inviting death. They would be thrown off the cliff at Mount Trypeum. Punishment for cheating was almost instant. Judges carried a switch to beat the frauds they were able to catch. Those who indulged in malpractices were

Water Pollution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Water Pollution - Essay Example Sadly, perhaps with no thought of its great value, some people unknowingly, or even knowingly, contaminate sources of this precious commodity. In some instances, such contaminations have left behind irreversible damage to the already diminishing supply. At this point, it is worth saying that this vital yet often ignored resource is water. Water pollution is a major challenge facing the world today.  All life is dependent on water, implying that there can be no life without water. Although earth is largely covered with water, it is sad that only a small percentage can be consumed. USGS.gov report revealed that only 1% of the earth’s water can be consumed by humans, 99% of which is groundwater and only 1% being lake/river water. The unusable water is either saline, or frozen in ice caps/glaziers, or is ocean water. With only a small portion being consumable, it would be prudent that this meager resource is kept as safe as possible. This is sadly not the case. Every day the mea ger sources of consumable water are depleted, thanks to acts of pollution. Such pollution occurs with or without realization. Water pollution is defined as the addition of harmful foreign elements (pollutants) to consumable water. This presentation seeks to highlight the various causes of water pollution.  Water pollution refers to the contamination of water bodies such as rivers, lakes, aquifers, oceans, and groundwater. It occurs when pollutants are directly or indirectly discharged into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds.  In numerous parts of the world mainly the developing countries, water pollution is a widespread menace which has profound impacts on the aesthetic characteristics of the environment, the health of the consumers of the polluted water and the economic and social wellbeing the inhabitants of these areas in general.  

Dynamics of Leadership Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Dynamics of Leadership - Personal Statement Example Science Group project: I was a leader in this project. My responsibilities included a selection of topic, distribution of tasks and making sure the tasks were completed in time. I was successful in it as I selected the Solar System project and everyone was happy with my selection. My group which consisted of four students other than I had previously decided which topic to choose from. We decided that we will complete the task in four days and do all the work in Science class as our teacher gave us time to work on our project. Cutting of planets, drawing, coloring, and pasting were all distributed equally. All of us participated equally in the project and it was delivered in time.   English Group Project: the class was divided into 3 groups. We used to sit in three rows so each row consisted of one group. We had a class quiz in which the team which gives most of the answers won. I always used to sit on the front desk, therefore, my teacher made me the leader. This was a difficult task for me because being a Chinese it is difficult to cope up with elective English classes. I tried to answer and make another answer but everyone was scared to do so. I got angry and could not lead my team as well as I did not know how to motivate them.   Group Task (China Day Celebration): This was a national holiday, therefore, we were supposed to decorate our school prior to it. This was a task involving all of the class. We had to make our flag and write enthusiastic messages for our country. Each class was supposed to decorate their own classrooms. The best-decorated classroom was supposed to get the reward. I observed that many students did not take a keen interest in it and tried to put their tasks on others. This added to the delay in the completion of the project and we did not come up with good work as compared to the winning class.

Economic Governance for Crisis Prevention

Economic Governance for Crisis Prevention 1.0 INTRODUCTION The proposed research attempts to identify the critical components of economic governance in four Asian countries namely Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. The study by employing in-depth case study analysis seeks to analyze the economic governance practices in these countries and its relationship to their economic growths. The study then attempts to investigate the links between economic governance and the Asian financial crisis in 1997, and the roles the economic governance could have played in the recovery process since the above countries had somehow recovered at somewhat different speed. Based on the identified components of economic governance considered imperative for sustainable and resilient economy, the study will develop an index namely Economic Governance Quality Index capturing the score of governance parameters by the countries during the booms and slumps of their economies throughout the period under study. Finally, the components of economic governance wil l be employed in panel data analysis to empirically determine their significance towards economic growth. Its findings then will be of significance in crisis prediction and prevention methods in which the identified key governance parameters are the core ingredients. 2.0 BACKGROUND Good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development. Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations. The concept of governance has assumed a more central focus and been given key attention not only by the officials from the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank and the International Monetary Funds, but also from the policymakers in especially developing countries, aids donors, and regional organizations of economic cooperation as well as academics fraternity. Since the beginning of 1990s, there is a strong indication of growing emphasis that good governance, together with democracy and protection of basic human rights, is indispensable for sustainable economic growth. Economic development cannot be achieved without the development of good governance, which is composed of competence and honesty, public accountability, and broader participation in discussion and decision making on central issues. In addition to traditional view of governance which is on the public governance, there is also a notable increase in the endeavors to grasp the concept of governance in a multi-d imensional perspective which includes economic governance. The relationship between governance and development is thus studied from diverse angles, especially in the vein of economic transformation, macroeconomic management and prevention of crisis as well as structural reforms. The Asian financial crisis in 1997 had somehow exposed the vulnerability of the once high-performing countries in the region, whose lack of governance practices was said as the main cause of the severe affects. 3.0 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The Asian economies success was once dubbed the Asian Miracle, and a model to be emulated by other developing countries seeking higher growth. The success had introduced a growth model with emphasis on policies of setting the prices right, liberalizing the economy and the private sector as the engine of growth. When financial crisis struck the Asian countries in 1997, and looking at the devastating effects the countries in the region had experienced following the malaise, many however started to raise questions whether the quality of governance practices in these countries had somehow contributed to the crisis. Furthermore, the fact that South Korea and Malaysia had somehow recovered rapidly from the crisis compared to Indonesia and Thailand has sparked off interests on what roles good governance could have played in the recovery process. Hence, good governance has become a topic widely studied in the aftermath of the crisis. The discussions center on two main perspectives; firstly, the absence of good governance has been perceived as a MAJOR CAUSE of the crisis, and secondly, an inference is made that good governance is IMPERATIVE for durable and resilient economy. This study hence sets out to empirically identify and ascertain the governance parameters and their significance towards crisis prevention. Since the study focuses on economic governance, and to avoid constant repetition, the word governance used in this proposal should be taken in the context of economic point of view, unless explicit reference to other perspective of governance is relevant. 4.0 RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study will attempt to answer the following questions: What are the economic governance parameters presumed as crucially importance for sustainable and resilient economy? How to capture the score of economic governance practices in the East Asian countries during the period under study? How would the significance of governance parameters be empirically ascertained for the purpose of crisis prediction and prevention? 5.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The study hypothesized that good governance is imperative for sustainable and resilient economy, and the absence of such would result in increased vulnerability of the economy towards declining into crisis. Therefore, the objectives of the study are: To identify the parameters of economic governance crucial for resilient and sustainable economy. To develop an index of Economic Governance Quality capturing the score of economic governance practices by the East Asian countries during the period under study. To empirically ascertain the significance of economic governance parameters towards growth via a dynamic estimation model whose findings then would be of importance for crisis prediction and prevention. 6.0 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY It would be interesting to investigate what makes good governance and how do they link to economic growth in the four selected Asian countries. Furthermore, it would be crucially important to examine, from the governance perspective, how could the countries once considered by many as the fastest growing economies in the region were severely affected by the Asian crisis in 1997. Notwithstanding that, the fact that South Korea and Malaysia had made a more swift recovery than the other affected countries, it would therefore be interesting to analyze how the governance practices in the different countries facilitated the recovery process. The findings from this study are expected to provide a significant contribution to the existing governance literatures especially from the economic perspective since it attempts to discover the critical components of economic governance that are imperative for sustainable and resilient economy. Policy makers not only from the countries under study but also from other developing countries may utilize the findings of the study to evaluate their economic governance practices and be able therefore to make necessary adjustments and required changes with the objectives of registering better growth and strengthening the economy against any possibility of future crisis. The researchers from world organizations and academic community may also be interested with the findings since the study attempts to develop a new feasible dynamic estimation model to analyze the relationship between the components of economic governance and growth, of which they could use as a basis for their future research undertaking in the similar field. In addition, the findings could also stimulate and facilitate them to search for additional approaches to counter or justify the results of this study. 7.0 LITERATURE REVIEW Good governance has become a topic widely debated by academicians and economic communities especially in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis in 1997. The discussions in this context center on two main perspectives; first, the absence of good governance has been perceived as a major cause of the crisis, and the second prognosis is drawn by inference, namely, that good governance is imperative for durable development (Lam, 2003). Therefore, to have a better understanding of the governance, this section discusses definitions and indicators of the governance, its relationship with the economic growth, how it links to the crisis and its roles in the recovery process, and finally how could these governance factors be used for crisis prevention. 7.1 Definitions and indicators of governance Definitions and indicators of governance can be found in numerous literatures. A top-down approach is best used to understand the concept of governance, where a general or broad definition of governance will be firstly explored before moving on to a more specific definition. The World Bank continuously updates key governance indicators in its regular publication of Governance Matters, a governance study encompassing many aspects like political, social, economic, legal and moral. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Funds (IMF) has been doing a great deal of works in an effort to promote governance in the financial sector management through Financial Sector Assessment Programs (FSAPs) which include regulatory, risk management and aid management. 7.1.1 Broad definition of governance From the viewpoint of United Nations Development Program (1997), the definition of governance is the exercise of economic, political administrative authority to manage a countrys affairs at all levels. It comprises mechanisms, processes and institutions, through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligation and mediate their differences. Good governance is, among other things, participatory, transparent and accountable, effective and equitable, and it promotes the rule of law. It ensures that political, social and economic priorities are based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making over the allocation of development resources (Abdellatif, 2003). In its report, Governance and Sustainable Human Development in 1997, the UNDP acknowledges the following as core characteristics of good governance, i.e. participation, rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus orientation, equity, effectiveness and efficiency, accountability, and strategic vision. A report by the World Bank (2006) entitled Governance Matters V covering 213 countries and territories since 1996 until 2005, presented the latest version of the worldwide governance indicators, namely voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. Meanwhile, Inada (2003) discussed the governance in Indonesia where the word governance is translated as Tata Pemerintahan. It however has different meanings covering different agendas from political systems to corporate governance. They includes political democratization, reorganization of police and the military, curing the problems of corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN), justice reform system, decentralization, financial management, corporate governance, and state-owned enterprise reforms. Shimomura (2003) in his case study of governance in Thailand adopted pluralist democracy, accountability, transparency, predictability, and openness in the manner of exercising power, rule of law, effective and efficient public sector management, prevention of corruption, and prevention of excessive military expenditures as the standard definition of good governance. 7.1.2 Governance from economic perspective According to Dixit (2006), economic governance consists of the processes that support economic activities and economic transactions by protecting property rights, enforcing contracts, and taking collective actions to provide appropriate physical and organizational infrastructure. These processes are carried out within institutions, formal and informal. He described that the field of economic governance studies and compares the performance of different institutions under different conditions, the evolution of these institutions, and the transitions from one set of institution to another. Meanwhile, Huther Shah (1998), Gonzalez Mendoza (2001) and Mahani (2003) defined governance as a multi-faceted concept, encompassing all aspects of the exercise of authority through both formal and informal institutions in the management of resources. In other words, governance is: An exercise of economic power in the management of resource endowment of a country done through mechanisms, processes, and institutions through which citizens and groups can articulate their interest, exercise legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences. According to Mahani (2003), indicators of economic governance are: Macroeconomic management à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" fiscal management, level of government debt, unemployment and inflation. Investment à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" size and trend of foreign and domestic investments, capital flows and allocation of resources. Trade regime à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" trade orientation, export and import performance and balance of payment position. Financial sector management à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the banking sector and capital market. Exchange rate regime. Private sector participation à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" privatization and corporate governance. Social development à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" income distribution and level of poverty. Lanyi Lee (1999) studied on various aspects of economic governance, that is, the way in which economic life is governed and regulated à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" which does not mean solely governance by the government. They first discussed the political basis of economic governance which is in their view crucial for the way in which different aspects of economic governance operate. The other aspects include the governance of macroeconomic policy making, and the interrelated issues of financial and corporate governance. From political perspective, they argued that economic governance in a market economy consists partly of direct control or indirect influence exerted by the government and of governance exercised within markets themselves on the other part; but even self-governance by markets operates within the legal, judicial and regulatory framework that has been erected and is supported by the government. The optimum role of government in this context is market-augmenting government. Furthermore, they defined macroeconomic governance as the political and administrative processes by which macroeconomic policies are formulated, implemented, and evaluated. They argued that technically the same policies can be carried out with equal effectiveness by either an autocratic or a democratic government. An autocratic government, if supported by well-trained technocrats, is likely to come up with first-class macroeconomic governance. Nevertheless, there may be factors that over time lead to deterioration in the quality of these policies in an autocratic government, as well as problems in the ability of such governments to adjust policies in response to changes in economic circumstances. The working definition of governance used for financial and corporate governance depends on the key distinction between principals and agents. In this context, they defined governance as the legal and institutional arrangements governing the behavior of an economic entity, by which owners, creditors, markets and the government compel or induce agents to behave according to the interests of the principals, or those of the broader society. In this regard, two key elements of governance are discussed. First, there is the structure of incentives and rules facing agents with regard to such matters as granting and terminating lending, bankruptcy, the rights of boards of directors, compensation structure, and the termination of employment. Second, there is the structure of the information flow from agents to principals, that is, the rules and incentives affecting accountability, transparency and disclosure of information. In both cases, the government plays a key role in setting the rules by which private actors operate. Meanwhile, Das Quintyn (2002) in their study on the role of regulatory governance in crisis prevention and crisis management have identified four main components of the regulatory governance practices, namely independence, accountability, transparency and integrity. The study explored the quality of regulatory governance based on the financial system evaluations under the Financial Sector Assessment Programs (FSAPs). Introduced in May 1999, FSAPs is a joint effort by the IMF and World Bank aims to increase the effectiveness of efforts to promote the soundness of financial systems in member countries. Supported by experts from a range of national agencies and standard-setting bodies, works under the program seek to identify the strengths and vulnerabilities of a countrys financial system; to determine how key sources of risk are being managed; to ascertain the sectors developmental and technical assistance needs; and to help prioritize policy responses (IMF the World Bank, 2005). Regulatory governance applies to those institutions that possess legal powers to regulate, supervise and/or intervene in the financial sector, which include agencies like central bank, sectoral regulators and supervisors, deposit insurance agencies, and in systemic crisis situations, restructuring agencies and asset management companies. Regulatory agencies need a fair degree of independence from the political sphere and from the supervised entities to achieve good regulatory governance. Agency independence increases the possibility of making credible policy commitments and improves transparency and stability of the output. Independence goes hand in hand with accountability. Accountability is essential for the agency to justify its action against the background of the mandate given to it. Independent agents should be accountable not only to those who delegated the responsibility à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the government or legislature à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" but also to the public who fall under their functional realm. Transparency in monetary and financial policies refers to an environment in which objectives, frameworks, decisions, and their rationale, data and other information, as well as terms of accountability, are provided to the public in a comprehensive, accessible, and timely manner. Global integration of financial markets and products require greater degree of transparency in monetary and financial policies, and in regulatory regimes and processes, as a means of containing market uncertainty. Increased transparency supports accountability, protect the independence and eventually increase commitment to prudent behavior and risk control in the financial business. The final component of regulatory governance is integrity which reflects the mechanisms that ensure that staff of the agencies can pursue institutional goals of good regulatory governance without compromising them due to their own behavior, or self-interest. Independence, accountability, transparency and integrity interact and reinforce each other. Independence and accountability represent two sides of the same coin, while transparency is a vehicle for safeguarding independence and key instrument to make accountability work. Transparency also helps to establish and safeguard integrity. 7.2 Governance relationship with development and growth Economic governance is often studied through its role in the promotion of growth. This is done by setting policies, incentives and institutions that create an environment conducive to sustained stable growth through efficient management of a countrys resources. It means managing a countrys resources in a way that is accountable to, and representative of, the community; transparent, that is, open and predictable; and efficient and equitable in terms of the use, and distribution of, resources. Hence, good and effective governance requires government policies that encourage and efficiently manage investment and economic growth, support a fair and efficient public sector, strengthen the rule of law, protect human rights, and foster public participation and representation in decision making. Among the many studies that have examined the economic governance and growth nexus is such as that of Barro (1997). He studied the concept of growth based on the conditional convergence hypothesis which centers on the speed of economic growth in a country towards its steady-state level. He had empirically identified that more schooling, better health, lower fertility rate, less government consumption relative to GDP, greater adherence to uncorrupted rule of law, improvements in terms of trade changes, and lower inflation all go hand-in-hand with faster economic growth. Furthermore, he also explored on the interplay between economic and political development, and found that there is nonlinear relationship between democracy and growth. According to his findings, in countries with low levels of political freedom, a marginal increase in political freedom is associated with an acceleration in growth. However, at high levels of political freedom, a marginal increase in political freedom is associated with a slowing in growth. Huther Shah (1998) also studied the relationship between governance and growth and found that countries that practiced good governance have also enjoyed high growth. They developed a governance index featuring four sub-indices, i.e. citizen participation index (CP), government orientation index (GO), social development index (SD) and economic management index (EM) and each of the sub-indices has several components. For the Economic Management index, its components are outward orientation, central bank interdependence, and debt-to-GDP ratio which were used to assess trade policy, monetary policy and fiscal policy respectively. Gonzalez Mendoza (2001) argued that Southeast Asia provides ample evidence that there is a remarkable connection between administrative guidance and economic upturn. They compared the average growth rate of national output during the last decade against the quality of country governance and found that the high-performing economies à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Singapore and Malaysia à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" have the edge in public management. Those left behind, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, have poor management structures. A study by Inada (2003) on Indonesia governance showed the importance of political stability and effective economic management as key elements for sustainable economic development among many governance factors. Bordo (2007) provides a good qualitative analysis on the possible determinant of emerging market crises from the perspective of balance sheet approach, which then put at center stage the importance of financial development. Though he never mention the word governance itself, he outlines the deep institutional determinants of financial development à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" including the governance parameters such as the rule of law, protection of property rights, political stability, and representative democracy à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" towards achieving financial stability. He further conjectures about the ways countries learn from their financial crises to improve their institutions and grow up to financial stability. 7.3 Governance link to crisis and roles in recovery process Lanyi Lee (1999) presented a strong case that governance issues were important in the East Asian crisis. They hypothesized that transparency and accountability in macroeconomic policymaking, in the operation of the financial system, and in corporate governance do serve to lessen a countrys vulnerability to financial crises and to strengthen the ability to deal with crises when they occur. They also hypothesized that a democratic political system, in which leaders are held accountable to their electorate by both direct election of the executive and an elected legislature à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" as well as by an independent judiciary and a free press and civil society à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" is less likely to collapse in the face of economic and financial difficulties than is a country run by an autocratic government, which imposes severe restraints on the public expression of opinion and dissemination of information. On the political basis of economic governance, they have suggested a hypothesis regarding the kind of political regimes likely to produce an effective, growth-enhancing, market-augmenting government. It is the type of political regime that is especially effective in the early stages of economic development may be less suited to fostering the creation of a full-fledged, sophisticated market economy at a later stage. They argued that there certainly seems to be some indications of this in the Asian experience, where authoritarian regimes fostered rapid growth when these economies were at relatively low income levels, but seems to be evolving toward more democratic models to deal with demands for greater market autonomy. They however suggested that even if a case can be made for the desirability of democratization as a market economy becomes more sophisticated, the varied historical examples warrant the need to find out more about the conditions under which either an autocratic or a democratic government can be market-augmenting, or not. They further highlighted that it would be useful to find historical examples of, and develop plausible scenarios for, the transition from discretionary (an autocratic government) to arms-length (a democratic government) approaches to state economic governance, and to define the most effective ways in which the international community might assist with this transition. Furthermore, they believed that empirical work on macroeconomic governance would need to tap into the huge literature on macroeconomic policies and their effect, and link existing work with variables that reveal the quality of governance. Unfortunately, such variables are hard to quantify; but perhaps a classification of regimes together with a classification of the way macroeconomic policy is organized, could yield ways of exploring the relationships between the political and administrative variables, on the one hand, and the more familiar economic variables on the other. In other words, it would be interesting to look how the macroeconomic policies are formulated, implemented and evaluated through the governance perspective, to understand whether adherence to, or lack of, the governance practices could influence the outcome of the macroeconomic policies, as well as to determine conditions that would lead to good quality policies which would eventually identify the appropriate type of market-augmenting government as the market economy progresses. Besides, they also made preliminary attempts to trace the relationship between empirical indicators of financial and corporate governance with some governance variables that have been developed by others. They however suggested that one needs to look more carefully, perhaps through case studies, at the realities of financial and corporate governance in particular cases and the linkage between indicators of these types of financial and corporate governance with the more carefully articulated classification of political regimes. Specifically with regard to the adjustment of most severely affected countries to the Asian crisis, they suggested that it would be interesting to examine the reasons why recovery in Korea has been more rapid than in the Indonesia and Thailand. Similarly, it would also be interesting to investigate Malaysias speedy recovery from the crisis even though the country did not subscribe to the IMF recovery prescriptions. Mahani (2003) highlighted that after the rapid recovery of the Asian economies in 1999, discussion of the causes of the crisis has been centered on the quality of economic governance in these economies. The East Asian economies success was at one time a model to be emulated by other developing countries, but after the 1997 financial turbulence, doubts were raised about the quality of economic governance in these Asian countries. Questions were raised whether the governance in these economies contributed to the crisis when countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea experienced sharp economic contraction during the crisis. She further highlighted that questions on the quality of governance centered on the issue whether or not the same economic governance that produced high growth also weakens the economies and makes them vulnerable to external shocks, whether the economic governance fails to avoid market failures in pursuing its high growth strategy, whether the conditions for good governance always the same irrespective of the stage of economic development, and whether the crony capitalism a result of the governance failure since it was among the widely acknowledged factors contributing to the crisis. To know whether economic governance had made the economy vulnerable to a crisis, it is crucially important to examine the causes of the crisis and to link them with the economic weak points. Was the crisis due to the imprudent economic management or due to external factors? Although external factors have been recognized as the key cause for the crisis, domestic shortcomings were also responsible for deepening or aggravating the impact of the crisis. Furthermore, Malaysias own crisis remedies and the rejection of the IMFs standard crisis solutions open the debate on what is good economic governance. She argued that the 1997 Asian experience showed the economic governance framework by the IMF and the World Bank has some weaknesses, namely unfettered short term capital flows, lack of long-term and broader macroeconomic objectives when growth is driven by the private sector, and minimal attention given to socioeconomic issues such as income distribution. The rapid recovery by Malaysia and Korea, which adopted different strategies shows that there are alternative ways to respond to a crisis, implying that there is also no single definition of economic governance. Policy flexibility arising from good economic governance before the crisis made it possible to Malaysia to take response measures specially tailored to its need and situation, and rejecting one-size-fits-all prescriptions by the IMF. 7.4 Governance roles in crisis prevention The rapid pace and spread of globalization pose stiff challenges to economic governance as new criteria and developments may impose a heavier governance burden on the government and economy. One of the biggest challenges is the increasingly volatile international flow of capital that makes economic governance much more difficult as economic fundamentals are not the only factors that determine performance. Global integration also limits the choice of measures that are available to a country in making its response. Yet good governance is essential for sustained economic growth. The challenge is to determine what good governance consists of under these changing conditions. Ever better economic management is called for, to preserve economic resilience and prevent external shocks from turning into crises. Thus, a close and critical evaluation of the new economic governance parameters and institutions is essential. 8.0 OVERVIEW ON THE STUDY OF GOVERNANCE 8.1 Development of the study of governance Inada (2003) outlined the development in the study of governance over the last 10 years which can be categorized into several types: Identifying factors of governance: what factors are the governance factors that affect the performance of the economies of developing countries? Example à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" World Bank (1992) documented such factors as accountability, transparency, predictable legal framework, efficiency of the public sector, etc. Categori Economic Governance for Crisis Prevention Economic Governance for Crisis Prevention 1.0 INTRODUCTION The proposed research attempts to identify the critical components of economic governance in four Asian countries namely Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. The study by employing in-depth case study analysis seeks to analyze the economic governance practices in these countries and its relationship to their economic growths. The study then attempts to investigate the links between economic governance and the Asian financial crisis in 1997, and the roles the economic governance could have played in the recovery process since the above countries had somehow recovered at somewhat different speed. Based on the identified components of economic governance considered imperative for sustainable and resilient economy, the study will develop an index namely Economic Governance Quality Index capturing the score of governance parameters by the countries during the booms and slumps of their economies throughout the period under study. Finally, the components of economic governance wil l be employed in panel data analysis to empirically determine their significance towards economic growth. Its findings then will be of significance in crisis prediction and prevention methods in which the identified key governance parameters are the core ingredients. 2.0 BACKGROUND Good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development. Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations. The concept of governance has assumed a more central focus and been given key attention not only by the officials from the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank and the International Monetary Funds, but also from the policymakers in especially developing countries, aids donors, and regional organizations of economic cooperation as well as academics fraternity. Since the beginning of 1990s, there is a strong indication of growing emphasis that good governance, together with democracy and protection of basic human rights, is indispensable for sustainable economic growth. Economic development cannot be achieved without the development of good governance, which is composed of competence and honesty, public accountability, and broader participation in discussion and decision making on central issues. In addition to traditional view of governance which is on the public governance, there is also a notable increase in the endeavors to grasp the concept of governance in a multi-d imensional perspective which includes economic governance. The relationship between governance and development is thus studied from diverse angles, especially in the vein of economic transformation, macroeconomic management and prevention of crisis as well as structural reforms. The Asian financial crisis in 1997 had somehow exposed the vulnerability of the once high-performing countries in the region, whose lack of governance practices was said as the main cause of the severe affects. 3.0 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The Asian economies success was once dubbed the Asian Miracle, and a model to be emulated by other developing countries seeking higher growth. The success had introduced a growth model with emphasis on policies of setting the prices right, liberalizing the economy and the private sector as the engine of growth. When financial crisis struck the Asian countries in 1997, and looking at the devastating effects the countries in the region had experienced following the malaise, many however started to raise questions whether the quality of governance practices in these countries had somehow contributed to the crisis. Furthermore, the fact that South Korea and Malaysia had somehow recovered rapidly from the crisis compared to Indonesia and Thailand has sparked off interests on what roles good governance could have played in the recovery process. Hence, good governance has become a topic widely studied in the aftermath of the crisis. The discussions center on two main perspectives; firstly, the absence of good governance has been perceived as a MAJOR CAUSE of the crisis, and secondly, an inference is made that good governance is IMPERATIVE for durable and resilient economy. This study hence sets out to empirically identify and ascertain the governance parameters and their significance towards crisis prevention. Since the study focuses on economic governance, and to avoid constant repetition, the word governance used in this proposal should be taken in the context of economic point of view, unless explicit reference to other perspective of governance is relevant. 4.0 RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study will attempt to answer the following questions: What are the economic governance parameters presumed as crucially importance for sustainable and resilient economy? How to capture the score of economic governance practices in the East Asian countries during the period under study? How would the significance of governance parameters be empirically ascertained for the purpose of crisis prediction and prevention? 5.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The study hypothesized that good governance is imperative for sustainable and resilient economy, and the absence of such would result in increased vulnerability of the economy towards declining into crisis. Therefore, the objectives of the study are: To identify the parameters of economic governance crucial for resilient and sustainable economy. To develop an index of Economic Governance Quality capturing the score of economic governance practices by the East Asian countries during the period under study. To empirically ascertain the significance of economic governance parameters towards growth via a dynamic estimation model whose findings then would be of importance for crisis prediction and prevention. 6.0 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY It would be interesting to investigate what makes good governance and how do they link to economic growth in the four selected Asian countries. Furthermore, it would be crucially important to examine, from the governance perspective, how could the countries once considered by many as the fastest growing economies in the region were severely affected by the Asian crisis in 1997. Notwithstanding that, the fact that South Korea and Malaysia had made a more swift recovery than the other affected countries, it would therefore be interesting to analyze how the governance practices in the different countries facilitated the recovery process. The findings from this study are expected to provide a significant contribution to the existing governance literatures especially from the economic perspective since it attempts to discover the critical components of economic governance that are imperative for sustainable and resilient economy. Policy makers not only from the countries under study but also from other developing countries may utilize the findings of the study to evaluate their economic governance practices and be able therefore to make necessary adjustments and required changes with the objectives of registering better growth and strengthening the economy against any possibility of future crisis. The researchers from world organizations and academic community may also be interested with the findings since the study attempts to develop a new feasible dynamic estimation model to analyze the relationship between the components of economic governance and growth, of which they could use as a basis for their future research undertaking in the similar field. In addition, the findings could also stimulate and facilitate them to search for additional approaches to counter or justify the results of this study. 7.0 LITERATURE REVIEW Good governance has become a topic widely debated by academicians and economic communities especially in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis in 1997. The discussions in this context center on two main perspectives; first, the absence of good governance has been perceived as a major cause of the crisis, and the second prognosis is drawn by inference, namely, that good governance is imperative for durable development (Lam, 2003). Therefore, to have a better understanding of the governance, this section discusses definitions and indicators of the governance, its relationship with the economic growth, how it links to the crisis and its roles in the recovery process, and finally how could these governance factors be used for crisis prevention. 7.1 Definitions and indicators of governance Definitions and indicators of governance can be found in numerous literatures. A top-down approach is best used to understand the concept of governance, where a general or broad definition of governance will be firstly explored before moving on to a more specific definition. The World Bank continuously updates key governance indicators in its regular publication of Governance Matters, a governance study encompassing many aspects like political, social, economic, legal and moral. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Funds (IMF) has been doing a great deal of works in an effort to promote governance in the financial sector management through Financial Sector Assessment Programs (FSAPs) which include regulatory, risk management and aid management. 7.1.1 Broad definition of governance From the viewpoint of United Nations Development Program (1997), the definition of governance is the exercise of economic, political administrative authority to manage a countrys affairs at all levels. It comprises mechanisms, processes and institutions, through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligation and mediate their differences. Good governance is, among other things, participatory, transparent and accountable, effective and equitable, and it promotes the rule of law. It ensures that political, social and economic priorities are based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making over the allocation of development resources (Abdellatif, 2003). In its report, Governance and Sustainable Human Development in 1997, the UNDP acknowledges the following as core characteristics of good governance, i.e. participation, rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus orientation, equity, effectiveness and efficiency, accountability, and strategic vision. A report by the World Bank (2006) entitled Governance Matters V covering 213 countries and territories since 1996 until 2005, presented the latest version of the worldwide governance indicators, namely voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. Meanwhile, Inada (2003) discussed the governance in Indonesia where the word governance is translated as Tata Pemerintahan. It however has different meanings covering different agendas from political systems to corporate governance. They includes political democratization, reorganization of police and the military, curing the problems of corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN), justice reform system, decentralization, financial management, corporate governance, and state-owned enterprise reforms. Shimomura (2003) in his case study of governance in Thailand adopted pluralist democracy, accountability, transparency, predictability, and openness in the manner of exercising power, rule of law, effective and efficient public sector management, prevention of corruption, and prevention of excessive military expenditures as the standard definition of good governance. 7.1.2 Governance from economic perspective According to Dixit (2006), economic governance consists of the processes that support economic activities and economic transactions by protecting property rights, enforcing contracts, and taking collective actions to provide appropriate physical and organizational infrastructure. These processes are carried out within institutions, formal and informal. He described that the field of economic governance studies and compares the performance of different institutions under different conditions, the evolution of these institutions, and the transitions from one set of institution to another. Meanwhile, Huther Shah (1998), Gonzalez Mendoza (2001) and Mahani (2003) defined governance as a multi-faceted concept, encompassing all aspects of the exercise of authority through both formal and informal institutions in the management of resources. In other words, governance is: An exercise of economic power in the management of resource endowment of a country done through mechanisms, processes, and institutions through which citizens and groups can articulate their interest, exercise legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences. According to Mahani (2003), indicators of economic governance are: Macroeconomic management à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" fiscal management, level of government debt, unemployment and inflation. Investment à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" size and trend of foreign and domestic investments, capital flows and allocation of resources. Trade regime à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" trade orientation, export and import performance and balance of payment position. Financial sector management à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the banking sector and capital market. Exchange rate regime. Private sector participation à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" privatization and corporate governance. Social development à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" income distribution and level of poverty. Lanyi Lee (1999) studied on various aspects of economic governance, that is, the way in which economic life is governed and regulated à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" which does not mean solely governance by the government. They first discussed the political basis of economic governance which is in their view crucial for the way in which different aspects of economic governance operate. The other aspects include the governance of macroeconomic policy making, and the interrelated issues of financial and corporate governance. From political perspective, they argued that economic governance in a market economy consists partly of direct control or indirect influence exerted by the government and of governance exercised within markets themselves on the other part; but even self-governance by markets operates within the legal, judicial and regulatory framework that has been erected and is supported by the government. The optimum role of government in this context is market-augmenting government. Furthermore, they defined macroeconomic governance as the political and administrative processes by which macroeconomic policies are formulated, implemented, and evaluated. They argued that technically the same policies can be carried out with equal effectiveness by either an autocratic or a democratic government. An autocratic government, if supported by well-trained technocrats, is likely to come up with first-class macroeconomic governance. Nevertheless, there may be factors that over time lead to deterioration in the quality of these policies in an autocratic government, as well as problems in the ability of such governments to adjust policies in response to changes in economic circumstances. The working definition of governance used for financial and corporate governance depends on the key distinction between principals and agents. In this context, they defined governance as the legal and institutional arrangements governing the behavior of an economic entity, by which owners, creditors, markets and the government compel or induce agents to behave according to the interests of the principals, or those of the broader society. In this regard, two key elements of governance are discussed. First, there is the structure of incentives and rules facing agents with regard to such matters as granting and terminating lending, bankruptcy, the rights of boards of directors, compensation structure, and the termination of employment. Second, there is the structure of the information flow from agents to principals, that is, the rules and incentives affecting accountability, transparency and disclosure of information. In both cases, the government plays a key role in setting the rules by which private actors operate. Meanwhile, Das Quintyn (2002) in their study on the role of regulatory governance in crisis prevention and crisis management have identified four main components of the regulatory governance practices, namely independence, accountability, transparency and integrity. The study explored the quality of regulatory governance based on the financial system evaluations under the Financial Sector Assessment Programs (FSAPs). Introduced in May 1999, FSAPs is a joint effort by the IMF and World Bank aims to increase the effectiveness of efforts to promote the soundness of financial systems in member countries. Supported by experts from a range of national agencies and standard-setting bodies, works under the program seek to identify the strengths and vulnerabilities of a countrys financial system; to determine how key sources of risk are being managed; to ascertain the sectors developmental and technical assistance needs; and to help prioritize policy responses (IMF the World Bank, 2005). Regulatory governance applies to those institutions that possess legal powers to regulate, supervise and/or intervene in the financial sector, which include agencies like central bank, sectoral regulators and supervisors, deposit insurance agencies, and in systemic crisis situations, restructuring agencies and asset management companies. Regulatory agencies need a fair degree of independence from the political sphere and from the supervised entities to achieve good regulatory governance. Agency independence increases the possibility of making credible policy commitments and improves transparency and stability of the output. Independence goes hand in hand with accountability. Accountability is essential for the agency to justify its action against the background of the mandate given to it. Independent agents should be accountable not only to those who delegated the responsibility à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the government or legislature à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" but also to the public who fall under their functional realm. Transparency in monetary and financial policies refers to an environment in which objectives, frameworks, decisions, and their rationale, data and other information, as well as terms of accountability, are provided to the public in a comprehensive, accessible, and timely manner. Global integration of financial markets and products require greater degree of transparency in monetary and financial policies, and in regulatory regimes and processes, as a means of containing market uncertainty. Increased transparency supports accountability, protect the independence and eventually increase commitment to prudent behavior and risk control in the financial business. The final component of regulatory governance is integrity which reflects the mechanisms that ensure that staff of the agencies can pursue institutional goals of good regulatory governance without compromising them due to their own behavior, or self-interest. Independence, accountability, transparency and integrity interact and reinforce each other. Independence and accountability represent two sides of the same coin, while transparency is a vehicle for safeguarding independence and key instrument to make accountability work. Transparency also helps to establish and safeguard integrity. 7.2 Governance relationship with development and growth Economic governance is often studied through its role in the promotion of growth. This is done by setting policies, incentives and institutions that create an environment conducive to sustained stable growth through efficient management of a countrys resources. It means managing a countrys resources in a way that is accountable to, and representative of, the community; transparent, that is, open and predictable; and efficient and equitable in terms of the use, and distribution of, resources. Hence, good and effective governance requires government policies that encourage and efficiently manage investment and economic growth, support a fair and efficient public sector, strengthen the rule of law, protect human rights, and foster public participation and representation in decision making. Among the many studies that have examined the economic governance and growth nexus is such as that of Barro (1997). He studied the concept of growth based on the conditional convergence hypothesis which centers on the speed of economic growth in a country towards its steady-state level. He had empirically identified that more schooling, better health, lower fertility rate, less government consumption relative to GDP, greater adherence to uncorrupted rule of law, improvements in terms of trade changes, and lower inflation all go hand-in-hand with faster economic growth. Furthermore, he also explored on the interplay between economic and political development, and found that there is nonlinear relationship between democracy and growth. According to his findings, in countries with low levels of political freedom, a marginal increase in political freedom is associated with an acceleration in growth. However, at high levels of political freedom, a marginal increase in political freedom is associated with a slowing in growth. Huther Shah (1998) also studied the relationship between governance and growth and found that countries that practiced good governance have also enjoyed high growth. They developed a governance index featuring four sub-indices, i.e. citizen participation index (CP), government orientation index (GO), social development index (SD) and economic management index (EM) and each of the sub-indices has several components. For the Economic Management index, its components are outward orientation, central bank interdependence, and debt-to-GDP ratio which were used to assess trade policy, monetary policy and fiscal policy respectively. Gonzalez Mendoza (2001) argued that Southeast Asia provides ample evidence that there is a remarkable connection between administrative guidance and economic upturn. They compared the average growth rate of national output during the last decade against the quality of country governance and found that the high-performing economies à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Singapore and Malaysia à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" have the edge in public management. Those left behind, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, have poor management structures. A study by Inada (2003) on Indonesia governance showed the importance of political stability and effective economic management as key elements for sustainable economic development among many governance factors. Bordo (2007) provides a good qualitative analysis on the possible determinant of emerging market crises from the perspective of balance sheet approach, which then put at center stage the importance of financial development. Though he never mention the word governance itself, he outlines the deep institutional determinants of financial development à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" including the governance parameters such as the rule of law, protection of property rights, political stability, and representative democracy à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" towards achieving financial stability. He further conjectures about the ways countries learn from their financial crises to improve their institutions and grow up to financial stability. 7.3 Governance link to crisis and roles in recovery process Lanyi Lee (1999) presented a strong case that governance issues were important in the East Asian crisis. They hypothesized that transparency and accountability in macroeconomic policymaking, in the operation of the financial system, and in corporate governance do serve to lessen a countrys vulnerability to financial crises and to strengthen the ability to deal with crises when they occur. They also hypothesized that a democratic political system, in which leaders are held accountable to their electorate by both direct election of the executive and an elected legislature à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" as well as by an independent judiciary and a free press and civil society à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" is less likely to collapse in the face of economic and financial difficulties than is a country run by an autocratic government, which imposes severe restraints on the public expression of opinion and dissemination of information. On the political basis of economic governance, they have suggested a hypothesis regarding the kind of political regimes likely to produce an effective, growth-enhancing, market-augmenting government. It is the type of political regime that is especially effective in the early stages of economic development may be less suited to fostering the creation of a full-fledged, sophisticated market economy at a later stage. They argued that there certainly seems to be some indications of this in the Asian experience, where authoritarian regimes fostered rapid growth when these economies were at relatively low income levels, but seems to be evolving toward more democratic models to deal with demands for greater market autonomy. They however suggested that even if a case can be made for the desirability of democratization as a market economy becomes more sophisticated, the varied historical examples warrant the need to find out more about the conditions under which either an autocratic or a democratic government can be market-augmenting, or not. They further highlighted that it would be useful to find historical examples of, and develop plausible scenarios for, the transition from discretionary (an autocratic government) to arms-length (a democratic government) approaches to state economic governance, and to define the most effective ways in which the international community might assist with this transition. Furthermore, they believed that empirical work on macroeconomic governance would need to tap into the huge literature on macroeconomic policies and their effect, and link existing work with variables that reveal the quality of governance. Unfortunately, such variables are hard to quantify; but perhaps a classification of regimes together with a classification of the way macroeconomic policy is organized, could yield ways of exploring the relationships between the political and administrative variables, on the one hand, and the more familiar economic variables on the other. In other words, it would be interesting to look how the macroeconomic policies are formulated, implemented and evaluated through the governance perspective, to understand whether adherence to, or lack of, the governance practices could influence the outcome of the macroeconomic policies, as well as to determine conditions that would lead to good quality policies which would eventually identify the appropriate type of market-augmenting government as the market economy progresses. Besides, they also made preliminary attempts to trace the relationship between empirical indicators of financial and corporate governance with some governance variables that have been developed by others. They however suggested that one needs to look more carefully, perhaps through case studies, at the realities of financial and corporate governance in particular cases and the linkage between indicators of these types of financial and corporate governance with the more carefully articulated classification of political regimes. Specifically with regard to the adjustment of most severely affected countries to the Asian crisis, they suggested that it would be interesting to examine the reasons why recovery in Korea has been more rapid than in the Indonesia and Thailand. Similarly, it would also be interesting to investigate Malaysias speedy recovery from the crisis even though the country did not subscribe to the IMF recovery prescriptions. Mahani (2003) highlighted that after the rapid recovery of the Asian economies in 1999, discussion of the causes of the crisis has been centered on the quality of economic governance in these economies. The East Asian economies success was at one time a model to be emulated by other developing countries, but after the 1997 financial turbulence, doubts were raised about the quality of economic governance in these Asian countries. Questions were raised whether the governance in these economies contributed to the crisis when countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea experienced sharp economic contraction during the crisis. She further highlighted that questions on the quality of governance centered on the issue whether or not the same economic governance that produced high growth also weakens the economies and makes them vulnerable to external shocks, whether the economic governance fails to avoid market failures in pursuing its high growth strategy, whether the conditions for good governance always the same irrespective of the stage of economic development, and whether the crony capitalism a result of the governance failure since it was among the widely acknowledged factors contributing to the crisis. To know whether economic governance had made the economy vulnerable to a crisis, it is crucially important to examine the causes of the crisis and to link them with the economic weak points. Was the crisis due to the imprudent economic management or due to external factors? Although external factors have been recognized as the key cause for the crisis, domestic shortcomings were also responsible for deepening or aggravating the impact of the crisis. Furthermore, Malaysias own crisis remedies and the rejection of the IMFs standard crisis solutions open the debate on what is good economic governance. She argued that the 1997 Asian experience showed the economic governance framework by the IMF and the World Bank has some weaknesses, namely unfettered short term capital flows, lack of long-term and broader macroeconomic objectives when growth is driven by the private sector, and minimal attention given to socioeconomic issues such as income distribution. The rapid recovery by Malaysia and Korea, which adopted different strategies shows that there are alternative ways to respond to a crisis, implying that there is also no single definition of economic governance. Policy flexibility arising from good economic governance before the crisis made it possible to Malaysia to take response measures specially tailored to its need and situation, and rejecting one-size-fits-all prescriptions by the IMF. 7.4 Governance roles in crisis prevention The rapid pace and spread of globalization pose stiff challenges to economic governance as new criteria and developments may impose a heavier governance burden on the government and economy. One of the biggest challenges is the increasingly volatile international flow of capital that makes economic governance much more difficult as economic fundamentals are not the only factors that determine performance. Global integration also limits the choice of measures that are available to a country in making its response. Yet good governance is essential for sustained economic growth. The challenge is to determine what good governance consists of under these changing conditions. Ever better economic management is called for, to preserve economic resilience and prevent external shocks from turning into crises. Thus, a close and critical evaluation of the new economic governance parameters and institutions is essential. 8.0 OVERVIEW ON THE STUDY OF GOVERNANCE 8.1 Development of the study of governance Inada (2003) outlined the development in the study of governance over the last 10 years which can be categorized into several types: Identifying factors of governance: what factors are the governance factors that affect the performance of the economies of developing countries? Example à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" World Bank (1992) documented such factors as accountability, transparency, predictable legal framework, efficiency of the public sector, etc. Categori

John F. Kennedy Essay -- Essays Papers

John F. Kennedy On November 22, 1963, while being driven through the streets of Dallas, Texas, in his pen car, President John F. Kennedy was shot dead, apparently by the lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald. The world had not only lost a common man, but a great leader of men. From his heroic actions in World War II to his presidency, makind decisions to avert possible nuclear conflict with world superpowers, greatness can be seen. Kennedy also found the time to author several best-selling novels from his experiences. His symbolic figure represented all the charm, vigor and optimism of youth as he led a nation into a new era of prosperity. From his birth into the powerful and influential Kenndy clan, much was to be expected of him. Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline, Massachuasetts. His father, Joe, Sr., was a successful businessman with many political connections. Appointed by President Roosevelt, Joe Sr., was given the chair of the Securities and Exchange Comminision and later the prestigious position of United States ambassador to Great Britian. His mother, Rose, was a loving housewife and took young John on frequent trips around historic Boston learning about American revolutionary history. Both parents impressed on their children that their country had been good to the Kennedys. Whatever benefits the family received from the country they were told, must be returned by preforming some service for the country. The Kennedy clan included Joe, Jr., Bobby, Ted and their sisters, Eunice, Jean, Patricia, Rosemary, and Kathleen. Joe, Jr., was a significant figure in yound John’s like as he was the figure for most of John’s admiration. His older brother was much bigger and stronger than John and took it upon himslef to be John’s coach and protector. John’s childhood was full of sports, fun and activity. This all ended when John grew old enough to leave for school. At the age of 13, John left home to attend an away school for the first time. Canterbury School, a boarding school in New Milford, Connecticut and Choate Preparatory in Wallinford, Connecticut completed his elementary education. John graduated in 1934 and was promised a trip to London as a graduation gift. Soon after, John became ill with jaundice and would have to go to the hospital. He spent the rest of the sumer trying to recover. He ... ... on January 3, 1967. Kennedy was the first President to be born in the 20th Century and was very much a man of his time. He was restless, seeking, with a thirst of knowledge, and he had a feeling of deep commitment, not only to the people of the United States, but to the peoples of the world. Many of the causes he fouhgt for exist today because of what he did for the rights of minorities, the poor, the very old and the very young. He never took anything for granted adn worked for everything he owned. Perhaps Kennedy summed up his life best in his own inaugural speech: â€Å"Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.† Bibliography: Jim Marrs CROSSFIRE: THE PLOT THAT KILLED KENNEDY, New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1989. James DiEugenio, DESTINY BETRAYED: JFK, CUBA, AND THE GARRISON CASE, New York: Sheridan Square Press, Inc., 1992. Harrison Edward Livingstone, HIGH TREASON 2, New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1992. www.ourworld.compuserve.com/homepage/MGriffith/suspects.htm J.F.K. & the cold war Urs Schwarz, John F. Kennedy, C.J. Bucher Ltd 1964 Elizabeth Greenup, Case Studies in Modern History, 1987

KFC Macro Environment Analysis

Principal of Management POM 17 Student: Thuy LE Minh Student number: 31926529 Lecturer: Mr Dipan K Mehta Program manager:Ms Hazel Ong I. Introduction II. SWOT analysis III. Macro- environment analysis IV. Competitive environment analysis V. Application about planning, organizing, leading and controlling VI. Conclusion VII. Recommendations VIII. References I . Introduction There are many fast food companies around the world. KFC is one of the most famous brands in the global fast food industry. KFC stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken that was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1955 with only $105 (â€Å"Colonel Sanders & Kentucky Fried Chicken†, n. d. ). At the beginning, KFC specialized in Original Recipe fried chicken that known as Colonel’s secret recipe. It blends of 11 herbs and spices and completes by using the basic cooking technique. Similar essay: KFC Training and DevelopmentToday, KFC expands their products variedly to serve customer like â€Å"Kentucky Grilled Chicken†, â€Å"Honey BBQ Wings† and â€Å"freshly made chicken sandwiches† (â€Å"About KFC†, n. d. ). Sales volume is an important factor to generate profit in each company. In 1971, more than 2. 7 billion pieces of chicken were sold by KFC; it marked up the sales of more than $2 billion (â€Å"Colonel Sanders & Kentucky Fried Chicken†, n. d. ). In 2008, KFC took 42 percent of the market share in the U. S. chicken quick service restaurant (â€Å"About KFC†, n. d. ). Every day, KFC restaurants prepare meals for 12 million customers in the world.Therefore, KFC’s products has been satisfied many customers around the world. Additionally, the growing number of KFC’s franchises is one of the evidences shows the development of the KFC Cooperation. In 1971, KFC Corporation contained more than 3500 worldwi de franchises compared with more than 600 KFC’s franchises in the U. S and Canada and opened the first oversea outlet in England in 1964 (â€Å"Colonel Sanders & Kentucky Fried Chicken†, n. d ). In 2002, KFC is acquired by Yum! Brands . Today, KFC owns more than 20,000 restaurants within 109 countries around the world (â€Å"About KFC†, n. . ). Started with only $105, KFC now can evaluate as a multi-billion dollars company. This report will clarify some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of KFC, as well as the external and internal environment, and give some recommendations to help KFC becomes more successful in market. I. SWOT Analysis i. Strengths: * Good reputation, well- trained staff. According to the article â€Å"Brand values / KFC Gold standard qualities guarantee chicken that is so good! â€Å"( n. d. ), KFC ranks the highest in the Singapore and the U. S. Quick Service Restaurant Industry.Additionally, KFC has many loyal customers due t o the fact, everyday KFC serves more than 12 million people. * Delicious and strong trademarks recipes. Until now, KFC is famous for the Original Recipe fried chicken, and impressive KFC slogan is â€Å"Finger Lickin' Good† * Worldwide- recognized brand and a remarkably consistent brand identity The image of Colonel was attracted both children and their parent (Liu, 2008, p. 69). Furthermore, Liu (2008) states that Colonel’s humorousness attracts children and their parents put their trust in Colonel’s products. Strong capital position Yum! Brands Inc. which earned $ 11 billion in 2008 are controlling KFC, (â€Å"About KFC†, n. d. ) * Following C. H. A. M. P. S system (Liu,2008, p. 65) C- Cleanliness H- Hospitality A- Accuracy M- Maintenance P- Product Quality S- Speed * Good advertising campaign Weekly one KFC commercial can attract nearly 185 million people to see (â€Å"About KFC†, n. d. ). * Convenient locations, it is easy to access to KFC†™s restaurants. ii. Weaknesses: * Products tend to be close substitutes in the market. * In the past, KFC did use the oils contain Trans fats. Fonda, 2006) * Too many stores can lead to poor quality services ( Tice , 2010) * Unhealthy and fattening food (Cain, 2009) * Lack of providing food’s information ( KFC Singapore did not mention sugar or salt level ) (Macmullan, 2009, p. 31) iii. Opportunities: * Trend towards fast-food because it is delicious, quick and cheap ( Schlosser, 2001) * Consumers are curious about Western foods. (Liu,2008) * Chinese market is considered as the world’s fastest growing economy, KFC can choose this potential market to invest more restaurants. â€Å"Hailing China as World’s Fastest Growing Economy, Secretary-General Urges Chinese Government to Put Greater Emphasis on Social Equity, Environmental Sustainability†, 2010) * The increasing in number of young generation is tremendous. iv. Threats * Risk of new entrants due to lo w entry barrier (Luo, 2000) * Liu (2008) points out that avian flu reduced dramatically number of sale in fast food industry which always focus on chicken. * The growing trend of healthy food against fast food increase strongly. Davis (2002) states that eating fast food affects negatively to people’s health so people should say no to fast food.II. Macro- environment analysis i. Laws and Politics Singapore government controls over all companies and businesses. According to the article â€Å"Singapore Rankings†, 2012, intellectual property has the strongest security over Asian countries. Additionally, Singapore is the least dispassionate country in Asia. Corruption in Singapore’s economy is limited to minimum. In order to develop the economy, the government enacts many laws and regulations to â€Å"having the most open economy for international trade and investment â€Å"(â€Å"Singapore Rankings†, 2012).According to the article â€Å"Ease of doing busin ess in Singapore†, (n. d. ), starting a business need 3 days includes online registration with ACRA, company seal making, and work with Work Injury Compensation Insurance. Additionally, business opened in Singapore must follow â€Å"Companies Act†. ii. The Economy Singapore is considered as a top location for investment in the world, according to the article â€Å"Singapore Rankings†,2012. According to â€Å"Overview†, (2006), Singapore rated as â€Å"a solid macro economy in the world†, which is one of the most important factor in order to determine an economy.MAS- Monetary Authority of Singapore tries to keep inflation rates low, in order to keep value for the currency (â€Å"Singapore's exchange rate policy†, 2011, p. 15). CPI stands for The Consumer Price Index. In 2011, Singapore’s CPI was 5. 4% due to higher prices for accommodation, a significant increase in fuel and food (Huang, 2011). GDP is another measure of inflation, which stands for Gross Domestic Product was 5% growth in 2011. The Singapore’s economy can face with many difficulties due to the change in global economy. iii. TechnologyJohnson (1996) mentions that Singapore owns the best quality of the employees in Asian countries. They are literate and good at using computers. Thank for the development of IT in Singapore, KFC can be more easily generate their business here, for example, online marketing or online food ordering. In addition, telecommunications such as phones or mobile phones are developing rapidly in Singapore. Therefore, KFC can contact with their customers by phone or order food by using phone. v. Demographics According to the article â€Å"Population trends 2011† , (2011, p. 1), Singapore had 5. 8 million people at the end of 2011. It was 2. 5 times bigger than 2. 1 million people were at the end of 1970. Total population in Singapore includes both residents and non- residents. Between 2010 and 2011, total number of c itizens increased 0. 8%, and non – residents increased 6. 9 %. Therefore, people who went to Singapore to work or study were a significant factor contributed for Singapore’s population. According to the article â€Å"About KFC† (n. d. ), KFC focus on family and friends of all ages. However, between 2000and 2010 , there was slightly reduced in number of married people ( from 61. % down to 59. 4%) (â€Å"Population trends 2011†,2011,p. 1). It can affect negatively to KFC business. However, according to the article â€Å"Population trends 2011† , (2011, p. 7), the proportion of children who under 15 year sold took 20% up to 24% in 2011, these factor could positively affect to KFC business in Singapore. Due to the reason is that when a family goes out, their children will decide what places or restaurants to eat (Liu, 2008, p. 69). In Singapore, Chinese are the majority amongst other ethnic groups like: Malaysians, Indians and so on (â€Å"Population trends 2011†, 2011,p. 29).Additionally, KFC has a strong position in Chinese’s mind because of KFC considered as more â€Å"Chinese† performance than other brands (Liu, 2008, p. 70). So, KFC will face more advantages when expand their business in Singapore. On the other hand, Singapore has well- trained workforce as well as the best skilled labour in Asia, so it will provide good skilled employees for KFC . iv. Social Issue and the Natural Environment According to the article â€Å"Food and Beverage work group report†,(n. d. , p. 54), societal trend towards eating outside rather cooking and eating at home amongst Singaporeans.So, it creates more chance for Food and Beverage services expand its business. For instance, in 2008 there were 306 new fast food outlets were established compared with more 376 new outlets were opened in Singapore (â€Å"Economic Surveys Series†, 2011, p. 7). III Competitive environment analysis i. Competitors: KFC must compet e with many direct competitors in the global fast food industry. For example, Burger King, BBQ, Mc Donald’s, Wendy’s and so on. All of them are strong rivals based on their ability to gain market share, as well as their ambition to become the leader of the fast food industry.Additionally, fast food industry is saturated. Products are not easily differentiated. Almost of all fast food, restaurants currently lack of product differentiation. Their menu contains small types of foods such as hamburgers, chicken, french-fries. Therefore, some customers may feel difficult to eat these types of foods frequently. In order to compete with other strong rivals in the market, even it is difficult; KFC tried their best to distinguish their products. For example, pop corn chicken, egg tarts and so on.Based on lacking of product differentiation, as well as tremendous increase in competitors, fast food industry is control by Red Ocean Strategy recently. ii. New entrants: The threats of entry are quite high for fast food industry in general. Capital requirements are one of important factors, Jekanowski (1999, p. 15) shows that 2 main huge parts of company’s expense are cost of materials and employee’s salaries. In order to open some fast food outlets, company must consider some other factors such as rental cost, marketing, utilities and so on. iii. Substitutes and Complements:In consumers’ opinion, fast food attracts them because it is convenient, tasty, and cheap. However, nowadays, many research papers show the negative impact of eating fast food on health and encourage people to limit fast food consumption ( Schlosser, 2001) . KFC have to face with significant substitutes due to some companies who focus on healthier food but also low price strategy will adapt strongly to customer’s demand. iv. Customers: KFC aims to final customers. Schlosser (2000) states that nowadays, many women go to work, instead of cooking at home traditionally , fast food helps them to prepare meals for family.Furthermore, half of their food spending is for fast-food restaurants. Once again, the trend of eating outside amongst Singaporeans creates more chance for KFC expand their business especially in Singapore (â€Å"Food and Beverage work group report†, n. d. , p. 54). Additionally, a quarter of Americans select fast food for their meals every day ( Ransohoff, n. d. ). Therefore, KFC has many potential customers in order to satisfy those people and gets interest back. v. Suppliers: Bargaining power of suppliers is quite low due to some reasons. First, fast food industry especially KFC restaurants require common materials for producing.For example, chicken, breads, beef, potatoes and so on. Therefore, these materials are available and low cost of purchase. Secondly, there are many suppliers provide those stuff want to cooperate with KFC which means ability to raise prices can be limited. Table 1: Competitive environment analysis based on Porter’s Five Forces Porter’s Five Forces| Environmental Factor| Unattractive| Attractive| Competitors| x| | Threat of entry| x| | Substitutes| x| | Suppliers| | x|Customers| | x| V. Application about planning, organizing, leading and controlling i. Application about planning: One of KFC’s weaknesses is poor quality of service. Therefore, KFC may set their goals to increase customer satisfaction in 1 month. Then, KFC can achieve that goal by providing staff training workshops. They should know more about consumer behavior, and customer psychology in order to satisfy customer’s needs. These information can support by people who have good knowledge about customers. After these workshops, KFC should collect customer’s feedback whether staff perform better or not. ii.Application about organizing: KFC focus on satisfy customers to generate profits and improve its reputation. Each department includes in KFC have to respond its function to achiev e company’s goals. Departments such as marketing department, production department have their own leader like marketing manager, production manager, respectively. KFC must make sure that all of their department not only finish their tasks but also coordinate with other departments. Therefore, KFC need a good organizational structure to achieve its goals. For example, marketing managers need to plan a promotion campaign to introduce new products.They must cooperate with finance departments to determine the promotion budget. So, integration coordinates labor’s efficiency iii. Application about leading: KFC can choose relationship-motivated leadership style to control company. As a result, managers should build good relationships with employees, narrow the distance between managers and workers. Managers should care more about workers, satisfy their needs, and show company’s respectability toward employees. For example, managers can give more bonuses for workers in order to encourage them to finish their duty perfectly. iv. Application about controlling:KFC should follow clan control to achieve its targets. The managers should discuss with followers to make decision. For example, chiefs, cashiers and waiters who have more chances to communicate with customers can contribute many worthy ideas. Conclusion: This report mentions SWOT analysis, macro-environment analysis focus on Singapore, and competitive-environment analysis of KFC in Singapore then give some recommendations. KFC has good brand image in customers’ mind. However, KFC lacks of product differentiation amongst their strong competitors. The change in demographic can affect positively to fast food industry especially KFC.On the other hand, the trend towards healthy food can against the development of fast food. The macro environment focuses on five mains parts which are Law and politics, economy, technology, social issues and demographic. In Singapore, government open their laws and regulations to attract overseas investment. Moreover, the economy in Singapore is quite stable, with the development of technology help Singapore become a potential market for KFC. Moreover, Singaporeans prefer eating outside rather than cooking at home is one of the advantages for the development of KFC in Singapore.The competitive environment mentions five factors are competitors, threat of entrants, suppliers, customers, and substitutes. KFC has to face with many currently strong competitors, as well as new rivals. However, KFC lacks of its products differentiation. Some actions can help KFC in order to achieve good management through process of planning, organizing, leading and controlling. In conclusion, KFC is invited a really potential market especially in Singapore, they should develop their advantages as well as limit the disadvantages as much as possible to satisfy customers. Recommendation:In order to gain more customers satisfaction, KFC can do some renovations. Fir st, KFC should make differentiated products to compete with its rivals. For example, create new menu contains vegetarian food besides normal menu. Additionally, provides food in a variety of food sources like pork, lamb and so on. Secondly, KFC can give customer reward points for purchasing KFC’s products to get customer loyalty. Furthermore, birthday cards or small gift in customer’s birthday can build a better relationship. KFC can increase its sale volume and advertise its brand widely by running corporate discounts with its complements such as Pepsi, and Nestle.Last but not least, KFC need to care more about their customers by gathering customer’s information. Therefore, it is easier to collect their feedback as well as do customer loyalty program. All of these things above need a strong finance to support, however, its benefit definitely outweigh its cost. | ReferencesAbout KFC. (n. d. ). KFCfranchise. Retrieved March 9, 2012, from http://www. kfcfranchise. com/about-KFC-fried-chicken-business. phpBrand values / KFC Gold standard qualities guarantee chicken that is so good! . (n. d. ). KFC. Retrieved March 9, 2012, from http://kfc. com. g/about-us-goldstandard. phpCain, S. (2009, June 14). The worst restaurant of the year award goes to Kentucky Fried Chicken. The Health Wyze Report. 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