Library system Essay Example for Free

Library system Essay Introduction The world of Information Technology transformed and made the life of human beings easier through the innovation of different machines and software applications. Faster and reliable sources have been offered by search engines which are all over the web. But even though this is the case, many schools and universities are still requiring their students to use library materials in their researches and school works. From the statement of purpose, the compute’rized library system: meeting information needs of the people of Saint Michael College of Caraga, Nasipit, Agusan del Norte. Our proposed system, the Saint Michael College of Caraga Library Management System, is a system wherein there is no need of manual library transactions. This will carry out different processes such as searching books, keep records of the books, borrowing of books and return of books. Hence, at present, Saint Michael College of Caraga is maintaining the School Library in a manual basis. Handling bulky records in a manual method is very difficult. And the process of updating could not be done easily and accurately. Likewise, a manual procedure of handling bulky record is very slow and is prone to manual errors. Consequently, it is proposed that Saint Michael College of Caraga shall maintain an electronic data base management system (DBMS) for the purpose of maintaining the records of the School Library for easy, fast and accurate processing and maintenance of these records that will enhance management decisions and for the improvement of its services to all the stakeholders of Saint Michael College of Caraga. Library is regarded as the brain of any institute; many institutes understand the importance of the library to the growth of the institute and their esteem users (students). Library Management System of Saint Michael College of Caraga supports the general requirement of the library like acquisition, cataloguing, circulation that offers many flexible and convenient features, allowing librarians and library users to maximize time and efficiency. Library System gives the all detailed information about students, staff and books. It will track on the how many books available in library and books issued to the students. It shows popular book among the students. It will provide book lost in library. It keeps the record of the suppliers and book binders. It generates MIS reports for management. Our software is customizable for any library requirement. In this chapter we take opportunity to consider changes in the library services, not in terms of minor, short term change in equilibrium of the sort just noted above, but in longer term. There has been continuing concern about the future of the libraries. Given the extent to which the provision used and the libraries are influenced by the social environment, and given possibilities by the use of new information technology; it would be unreasonable to expect libraries to remain  static. But if not, what would be the nature of the change? The issue is not whether there is a change but what will be the change. If we are to make a claim to understand the nature of library services, the surely we ought to have notions, some forecasts, about how library system might change. Purpose and Description In setting up a library, one aspect that should be considered, what are the resources the library has and what are the ways to provide a better service to the students? Well, one of the easiest ways is having a system to organize all the transactions in the library. A library system is software that will handle basic and systematic organization of function in the library. The system would provide basic set of features to add/update student’s information, add/update books information, search for books and manage check-in/check-out processes. In this application we can maintain the records of students and books and enable to determine how many books are issued and likewise determine the available books in the library. The proposed library system will greatly improve the efficiency of the school library. This study has the following hypothesis: The profiles of the respondents taken are their names, Student ID Number, Year and Course, and Title and Author of the Book Borrowed. The manual system is very time consuming, inconvenient when it comes to recording, organizing and retrieving borrower’s record in the log book. There are few solutions but many a times, we making them works by finding ways to work around system inadequacies. Moreover we have limited staff resources, these work around waste time, effort, and skills that should be spent on user services. solutions do not keep up with the technological changes and hence prove to be time wasters. Library Management system is a small footprint software suitable for personal /individual Libraries. You can store the information about the books and other material and control the movement of the same. Silent Features †¢ Control the movement of books and other material and avoid losing the same. †¢ Search if you have a specific book in your collection based on t he title, author etc. †¢ Print the spine labels for the book. †¢ Find what a specific person has borrowed from you. Objectives The main objective of the application is to automate the existing system of manually maintain the records of the Book Issue, Book Return from the student, Stock Maintenance, and Book Search to be computerized. And to develop a database which stores user details and book details, give reliable search facility for the user, create an easy to understand user friendly environment. So the Book Issue, Return, Searching will be faster. This application can be used by any Library to automate the process of manually maintaining the records related to the subject of maintaining the stock  and Book Issues. The general objective of this study is to design and develop a library system that will serve as a proposal to help librarians save time with the automation of its daily operation. Specific Objectives: †¢To computerize records keeping of books; †¢To allow librarians to retrieve complete information of the book and its borrowers. †¢To check the availability of the books and penalties. †¢To search, issue and return of books. †¢It can only be utilized by the librarian Scope and Limitation The study only focuses on the Information Technology Library Management System of  Saint Michael College of Caraga. Without computers, as some libraries are, all of them are dependent on paper work. When compared to computerized systems, data backup and data retrieval systems are inefficient and labor intensive. Users of a paper based system become almost wholly reliant on the librarians, for all levels of service, whether they are enquiries about existing books, inter-library loans, or the availability of books. There is additionally no real involvement of a user in the entire process. The transactions that the system accommodates are the attendance of every student that  enter the library, book registration and deletion, updating book information and searching thesis references, Borrowing of books, and keeping the record of transaction. Review of Related Literature This chapter contains the relevant outline of literatures related to the study of Library system. This study composed of programming languages, Database and Graphical User Interface (GUI) that is used in the system. This system would be used by members who may be students or professors of that University to check the availability of the books and borrow the books using  automated device, and by the librarian to update the databases. Thepurposeofthisdocumentistoanalyzeandelaborateonthehigh-levelneedsand features of the Library Management System. It focuses on the capabilities and facilities provided by a Library. The details of what all are the needs of the Library Management System and if it fulfils these needs are detailed in the use-case and supplementary specifications. Automated book monitoring system helps to reduce the effect of entering the wrong quantity and the amount of staff time devoted to repetitive activities. Related Studies  According to ACRL (1994) suggested that institution should be prepared to utilized new technologies for accessing information as they are developed. This is why operating the library operations is quite a welcome idea. According to Jeff Kaplan (05/08/2007 A new generation of automated network management software and services is helping in-house staff address this challenge. These let network professionals establish regular patch-management procedures to safeguard against escalating security threats; and create system monitoring routines to identify load imbalances, which could cause service disruptions or performance problems. They also discover, inventory and track assets to make sure that hardware and software licenses are up-to-date and that problems can be resolved faster. According to Voustin Sweere (Aug. 2001) Nowadays every book keeping system used in practice is automated. Most book keeping software an integrated information system are based on database. In this paper, we develop a conceptual book keeping model which is not based on manual techniques, but which is applicable in database environment. Technical Background In this chapter, it provides an overview of all the overall system design, features and  functionalities. The system is design to implement a computerize library management system in Saint Michael College of Caraga. This system consists of one user, the administrator. The administrator can access the system by having first the login security which they have to input his/her user name and password. Once the inputted username and password did not match, the required/registered information it displays â€Å"Invalid Username and Password†. If the username and password match the registered information, the next form will display depending on the role of the administrator.

Balance sheet ratio analysis

Balance sheet ratio analysis Balance Sheet Ratio Analysis Important Balance Sheet Ratios measure liquidity and solvency (a businesss ability to pay its bills as they come due) and leverage (the extent to which the business is dependent on creditors funding). They include the following ratios: Liquidity Ratios These ratios indicate the ease of turning assets into cash. They include the Current Ratio, Quick Ratio, and Working Capital. Current Ratios.The Current Ratio is one of the best known measures of financial strength. It is figured as shown below: Total Current Assets Current Ratio = ____________________ Total Current Liabilities The main question this ratio addresses is: Does your business have enough current assets to meet the payment schedule of its current debts with a margin of safety for possible losses in current assets, such as inventory shrinkage or collectable accounts? A generally acceptable current ratio is 2 to 1. But whether or not a specific ratio is satisfactory depends on the nature of the business and the characteristics of its current assets and liabilities. The minimum acceptable current ratio is obviously 1:1, but that relationship is usually playing it too close for comfort. If you decide your businesss current ratio is too low, you may be able to raise it by: Paying some debts. Increasing your current assets from loans or other borrowings with a maturity of more than one year. Converting non-current assets into current assets. Increasing your current assets from new equity contributions. Putting profits back into the business. Quick Ratios.The Quick Ratio is sometimes called the acid-test ratio and is one of the best measures of liquidity. It is figured as shown below: Cash + Government Securities + Receivables Quick Ratio = _________________________________________ Total Current Liabilities The Quick Ratio is a much more exacting measure than the Current Ratio. By excluding inventories, it concentrates on the really liquid assets, with value that is fairly certain. It helps answer the question: If all sales revenues should disappear, could my business meet its current obligations with the readily convertible `quick funds on hand? An acid-test of 1:1 is considered satisfactory unless the majority of your quick assets are in accounts receivable, and the pattern of accounts receivable collection lags behind the schedule for paying current liabilities. Working Capital.Working Capital is more a measure of cash flow than a ratio. The result of this calculation must be a positive number. It is calculated as shown below: Working Capital = Total Current Assets Total Current Liabilities Bankers look at Net Working Capital over time to determine a companys ability to weather financial crises. Loans are often tied to minimum working capital requirements. A general observation about these three Liquidity Ratios is that the higher they are the better, especially if you are relying to any significant extent on creditor money to finance assets. Leverage Ratio This Debt/Worth or Leverage Ratio indicates the extent to which the business is reliant on debt financing (creditor money versus owners equity): Total Liabilities Debt/Worth Ratio = _______________ Net Worth Generally, the higher this ratio, the more risky a creditor will perceive its exposure in your business, making it correspondingly harder to obtain credit. To financial ratio analysis Top Income Statement Ratio Analysis The following important State of Income Ratios measure profitability: Gross Margin Ratio This ratio is the percentage of sales dollars left after subtracting the cost of goods sold from net sales. It measures the percentage of sales dollars remaining (after obtaining or manufacturing the goods sold) available to pay the overhead expenses of the company. Comparison of your business ratios to those of similar businesses will reveal the relative strengths or weaknesses in your business. The Gross Margin Ratio is calculated as follows: Gross Profit Gross Margin Ratio = _______________ Net Sales (Gross Profit = Net Sales Cost of Goods Sold) Net Profit Margin Ratio This ratio is the percentage of sales dollars left after subtracting the Cost of Goods sold and all expenses, except income taxes. It provides a good opportunity to compare your companys return on sales with the performance of other companies in your industry. It is calculated before income tax because tax rates and tax liabilities vary from company to company for a wide variety of reasons, making comparisons after taxes much more difficult. The Net Profit Margin Ratio is calculated as follows: Net Profit Before Tax Net Profit Margin Ratio = _____________________ Net Sales Management Ratios Other important ratios, often referred to as Management Ratios, are also derived from Balance Sheet and Statement of Income information. Inventory Turnover Ratio This ratio reveals how well inventory is being managed. It is important because the more times inventory can be turned in a given operating cycle, the greater the profit. The Inventory Turnover Ratio is calculated as follows: Net Sales Inventory Turnover Ratio = ___________________________ Average Inventory at Cost Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio This ratio indicates how well accounts receivable are being collected. If receivables are not collected reasonably in accordance with their terms, management should rethink its collection policy. If receivables are excessively slow in being converted to cash, liquidity could be severely impaired. The Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio is calculated as follows: Net Credit Sales/Year __________________ = Daily Credit Sales 365 Days/Year Accounts Receivable Accounts Receivable Turnover (in days) = _________________________ Daily Credit Sales Return on Assets Ratio This measures how efficiently profits are being generated from the assets employed in the business when compared with the ratios of firms in a similar business. A low ratio in comparison with industry averages indicates an inefficient use of business assets. The Return on Assets Ratio is calculated as follows: Net Profit Before Tax Return on Assets = ________________________ Total Assets Return on Investment (ROI) Ratio. The ROI is perhaps the most important ratio of all. It is the percentage of return on funds invested in the business by its owners. In short, this ratio tells the owner whether or not all the effort put into the business has been worthwhile. If the ROI is less than the rate of return on an alternative, risk-free investment such as a bank savings account, the owner may be wiser to sell the company, put the money in such a savings instrument, and avoid the daily struggles of small business management. The ROI is calculated as follows: Net Profit before Tax Return on Investment = ____________________ Net Worth These Liquidity, Leverage, Profitability, and Management Ratios allow the business owner to identify trends in a business and to compare its progress with the performance of others through data published by various sources. The owner may thus determine the businesss relative strengths and weaknesses. Return on Equity(ROE,Return on average common equity,return on net worth,Return on ordinary shareholders funds) (requity) measures the rate of return on the ownership interest (shareholders equity) of the common stock owners. It measures a firms efficiency at generating profits from every unit of shareholders equity (also known as net assets or assets minus liabilities). ROE shows how well a company uses investment funds to generate earnings growth.

Factors influencing the success or failure of Small Business

Factors influencing the success or failure of Small Business Small businesses have certainly started to play an important role in the growth and development of a lot of economies in the world today, and they are becoming increasing popular. The reasons for this are not particularly hard to discern. Growing firms provide significant benefits to regions, with job generation, knowledge spillovers, economic multipliers, innovation drivers and cluster developments. The exact processes of growth and an analysis of the development and transitions from small to high growth rates and size development has generated limited study from an initial review of literature. The birth of new firms and their subsequent growth or failure has captivated the interest of researchers especially during the past decade and a half. The central theme dominating this segment of research focuses on the question of why Jason Fast Foods failed in their business. An initial review of literature on small firms reveals that many of them fail early in their lifecycles, presumably due to the many impediments and obstacles that they are unable to overcome. There is also the less than satisfactory growth rates observed among firms that survive the initial inception stage. Whereas the specific factor that led to the failure of this business was poor operational plan, a congregations of other factors was responsible for the failure of this business. This means that Jason Fast Foods failed because of a combination of poor product/service, marketing plan, operation plan and financial plan. The dynamics of changing demographics and consumer purchasing patterns, coupled with ever stronger competition, put increased pressure on Jason Fast Foods enterprises. This impacted a lot on the small business who had to devise new avenues for driving productivity and develop distinct competencies that was aimed at ensuring their survival. Basically, Jason Fast Foods suffered from limited information, finance, management time and experience and was vulnerable to environmental changes. The scale of operations was also low which meant that this firm did not benefit from the economies of scale which limited its operations and generally inhibited its growth and ability to develop and dominate the markets. The small firm sector has been described as very turbulent, with fluctuations in profits and sales being more imminent than larger firms, mainly because they are more likely to depend on single products or customers (Storey et al., 1987). Large firms on the other hand often exist becaus e competitive factors within industries make the use of economies of scale in productions which are necessary for survival. Operational factor that greatly contributed to the failure of Jason Fast Foods was the inability to attract higher quality people than its competitors. The differentiators between success and failures lie in the ability of a firm adopting strategies in the utilization of its capabilities that ensure the firm has higher quality people than its competitors, its able to develop and nurture its capabilities and that a culture is developed that encourages organizational learning. When competition intensified, the possession of these competencies became increasingly important for the firms continued success. Moreover, these were the distinctive capabilities that supported a market position that was valuable and difficult to imitate. The aim of developing and improving the resources basses and capabilities are aimed at achieving a strategic fit between resources and the opportunities that will ensure for added value from the effective deployment of resources. The overall inability to effect ively deploy resources for the best operational practice was inhibited by its scarcity. In addition to the above, the interaction between competitive advantage and distinctive competencies are well researched issues that Jason Fast Foods failed to exploit. The general concurrence is that firms that develop and exploit their distinctive capabilities and key competencies generally outperform their rivals and are able thrive in the said markets. For example, Day (1994) found that smaller firms that chose to compete with clearly defined strategies outperformed those firms with a less clearly defined focus. These believe is supported by Armstrong (2007) who found a close correlation between the entrepreneurial orientation of firms and the possession of a wide assortment of distinctive competencies. Operational inefficiency deprived Jason Fast Foods the ability to find a close correlation between its entrepreneurial orientation and the possession of a wide assortment of distinctive competencies. The role of financial factor contribution to the failure of Jason Fast Foods was precipitated by the skyrocketing health care and energy costs, tightening credit conditions and increasing labor costs. Generally, the small businesses are facing a challenging economic environment. The major constraints that were facing Jason Fast Foods can be broadly categorized into four groups that are cost factors, credit conditions, trade competitiveness and industry metrics (HSBC, 2005). The major cost factors associated with doing business in America for the small businesses stems from the health care, oil, natural gas, retirement and savings and total employee compensation and regulatory costs (HSBC, 2005). These costs continue to rise by day, meaning that the proprietors of Jason Fast Foods were receiving the same amounts of inputs to run their businesses but at a higher cost. These increased costs limited the ability of Jason Fast Foods to purchase new equipments, hire new employees and expand businesses. The most significant increase in these costs has been the rising oil and natural gas prices. Additionally, the employees compensation costs have also grown, coupled with increased health care and medical costs which continued to impact on the bottom line of Jason Fast Foods. Another constraint that led to the failure of this firm was with credit conditions and access to credit. A lot of researchers agree that business financing is a key ingredient to business success through the provision of the ability for entrepreneurs to start or develop an existing business. As Child (1972) intones, capital availability ebbs and flows as business cycles evolve, essentially meaning that enough capital resources should be available at all stages of growth. The major contributing ingredients to the ease with which small business can gain access to capital encompasses such issues as budget deficits, commercial and industrial loans, interest rates and venture capital. For example, most credit that is extended to businesses either in the form of credit cards or commercial loans are tied to the prime rending rates, which are dictated by the overall operating conditions. These are basically reflected by the prevailing rending rates, which have been rising of late with severe implication on the cost of doing business. The fact that Jason Fast Foods encountered more difficulties in generating alternative financing (example through issuance of stock or commercial paper) become more resilient, meaning that they were being forced to pay high interest costs to secure a loan to finance ventures. This was compounded by the fact that interest rates are usually higher as private sources of capital compete with the public sector for investors in an economy, meaning that borrowing costs continues to rise regardless of growths in the economy. The end result is that small businesses are hugely disadvantaged. Without favorable credit conditions, entrepreneurs will either pay higher prices for capital or forgo adequate capitalization all together (HSBC, 2005). Another constraint faced by Jason Fast Foods that led to its failure was with regards to growth and development and the competitiveness of the operative industry. The major factors as regards competitiveness usually stem from trade deficits and the trends and manufactures new order. The contentious issues are that while the increased globalization has provided business owners with the opportunity to market and sell their goods abroad, small business have continually struggled and failed to exploit the potential. All the above factors clearly illustrate the major difficulties faced by small business in their endeavors that eventually led to the failure of Jason Fast Foods. While the same factors have been found to also impact on the larger counterparts, a clear deduction can be discerned that the impacts have greater implications on the small businesses.

Personal Narrative - Driving Test :: Personal Narrative Essays

Personal Narrative- Driving Test As I walked out of the courthouse and down the ramp, I looked at my mom in disappointment and embarrassment. Never wanting to return to that dreadful place, I slowly drug my feet back to the car. I wanted to curl up in a little ball and I didn't want anyone else to know what I had done. Gaining my composure, I finally got into the car. I didn't even want to hear what my mom had to say. My face was beat red and I was trying to hide my face in the palms of my hands because I knew what was about to come; she was going to start asking me questions, all of the questions I had been asking myself. Sure enough, after a short period of being in the car, the questions began. "Honey, how could we have miscalculated six months? My frustrated reply to every question was, "I don't know!" Maybe this was a sign I was going to fail. I could only imagine how my brother and sister were going to make me feel. They had teased me about studying so hard for the permit test. Now here I was, not actual failing the drivers test, but failing to go on the correct day. Exactly one month later, all of the fears that happened in the past were returning. Was I going to fail? Was I going to get the same, strict instructor? As I slide out of the car and slowly shut the door, I could only hope that the same person wouldn't be there when I attempted to take my driving test last time. With that thought running through my head, my brain was in overdrive. All the wheels were turning as fast as they possibly could. I tried to zone out the negative stories I heard by telling myself, "I can do this. I just drove through town on a practice run and I did perfectly fine." Of course, the fear of failure kept popping in my head and I couldn't get rid of it.Sluggishly, I made my way to the entrance of the courthouse. As I reached for the door, I let out a sigh of worry. I moseyed down the stairs trying to stall as long as possible. All that I could picture was the instructor with dark, slanted eyebrows that made a wrinkle between his two critical eyes.

Summer Of 17th Doll Review Essay -- essays research papers

Year 12 Literature SAC Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll The play â€Å"Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll† is a mixture of people’s inability to grow up and let go of dreams, in a typical Australian atmosphere in the nineteen fifties. Ray Lawler focuses on showing the characters finally waking up to their lives and realizing they don’t live in â€Å"heaven, â€Å" within in a simple plot. These techniques allow readers to connect and understand the disillusionment suffered by these Australian’s in this time. Our setting for â€Å"Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll’ is a Melbourne suburb, Carlton. Australia in the fifties had just began massive social and economical development. During the war Australia had relied on the United States of America for support, meaning now in post war Australia’s main partners had swapped from United Kingdom to them. With their support came their influence. Australian’s some-what simpler, laid back lifestyle was being altered. A new unstable Australia full of uncertainty in social values and morals had evolved. â€Å"Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll’ questions the previous Australian dream and asks f it can survive in the new country evolving. Carlton â€Å"a now scruffy but once fashionable suburb of Melbourne† was an industrial, working class area. Our characters find themselves in the working class status. Ray Lawler uses a group of friend’s, lovers, to show the catalysts of change evolving around Australia at the time. For seventeen years Roo and Barney had been traveling down from Queensland for they layoff season. Waiting for them were their â€Å"girlfriends† Olive and Nancy. These four characters each represent a key theme in the play. The ability to link them all together and show their enchanted world crumbling around them is what makes the play one of Australia’s finest. Roo and Barney are the typical Australian larrikins. They rare the representation of mate ship and freedom in Australia are known for. In the play their relationship acts as one of the first things to fall in their â€Å"paradise.† Roo’s position as head cane cutter was taken by Dowd. Roo finds his masculinity diminished. As most larrikins he can’t accept the fact he is not one of the best. Roo leaves early. To add to the reality of things, we learn Barney’s â€Å"girlfriend† Nancy has gone at got married. Their world begins to fall. It is Nancy’s marriage that plays a key role in forcing the group ... ... their world. With nothing left of their once happy world Lawler prepares us for the dramatic end. As Roo feels he can no longer live up to his previous life her scrambles to build a new one, even if it only slightly mimics the old one. He believes by proposing to Olive they will both still have a form of what they had before, by doing this he shows he knows what they had is over and can never return, he understands that he must grow up. Olive wont allow this to happen. She is still clinging to her world â€Å"you’ve got to go back, it’s the only hope we’ve got.† She attempts any thing to piece it back together. Emma enters and sees that Olive is gutted; she can’t accept the new reality. With the rejection from Olive Roo becomes a beaten disheartened figure. Each character now knows they cannot stay here, they must all move on for good. Ray Lawler concludes the play and has expressed the characters as far as they can go. He created Australia compelled by the demand for liberation of women, but killed by the disintegration of mate ship. Lawler leaves the audience knowing their dream, their world cannot survive the new Australia, and we must all allow it, and us to evolve. WORDS: 974

Consumer buying preferences towards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices Essay

1. Abstract This report shows data on consumer behaviour as primary research and secondary data from literature about sustainability, sustainable business practices and consumer behaviour towards sustainable produced goods. The terms sustainability and sustainable business practices will be examined in more detail. Data gathered from primary research will help to get a better understanding on consumer behaviour, by analysis and presentation in pie charts and bar charts. Methods of data collecting will be examined and the use of surveys and questionnaire as well. 2. Introduction This report will investigate consumer buying preferences towards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices. The term sustainability was first defined by the UN World Commission in its 1987 published report called â€Å"Our Common Future†, which defined it as: †¦development which meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Since the climate change and its impact on the environment people became more aware of the significance of sustainability. Also companies strive to implement sustainable business practices to prevent further harm to the environment and to improve their efficiency to lower costs and to enhance quality, which in turn satisfies customers and employees. This report will show that companies using sustainable business practices have an advantage in today’s economy and consumers will invest more time and money in technological goods produced using sustainable business practices. Techniques on how information was gathered will be elucidated in the methodology section and the results will be presented in section 5. 3. Literature Review Several literature resources about the topics sustainability, sustainable business practises, consumer behaviour and the environment were available. Key findings in literature show that impacts on the environment have led businesses as well as people to rethink the way they use resources. Due to media influence in past decades many people became aware of global warming, pollution, the ozone layer depletion and its negative effects on nature and health of humanity. An article about sustainable business practices suggests that companies of various sectors should use their own set of techniques to achieve their own version of sustainability. Furthermore various literatures show that most developments in business practices came from creative thinking about redesigning production cycles while maintaining consumer needs with the environment in mind. Ecoefficiency is the term used by some companies to describe their aims towards more sustainability. The World Business Council, an association of big corporations defines Ecoefficiency as: â€Å"as being achieved by the delivery of competitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life, while progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource intensity throughout the life cycle, to a level at least in line with the Earth ´s estimated carrying capacity†. This definition is remarkable in its position to human needs and value of life, and can be interpreted as a move away from â€Å"materialism† and contribution to meeting needs for human well-being. Most literature offered a big variety of subtopics around sustainability, su stainable business practices and consumer behaviour, which may go way far for purposes of this report. 4. Methodology Primary research was conducted with the aid of surveys and questionnaires. The sample consisted of 40 people, who answered 10 questions around the topic consumer buying preferences towards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices. The questionnaire took approximately 10 minutes to complete and participants were asked that the oldest member of each household should return the results by end of the month. Surveys are one of the fastest methods to gather information nowadays, due the possibility to conduct them online as well. In the questionnaire participants of ages 30 and above were asked basic questions like name, email, gender and age. Furthermore the questionnaire asked more specific questions like how would you best describe your household, annual household income, if participants would buy sustainable produced goods over normal competitors even if the price was little higher and more to gather information about consumers buying preferences. The questionnaire was designed to gather a lot of information in a short time. To achieve better results, phrases around the topic sustainability and sustainable business practices were formed so that participants had just to tick their favourite answers. Limitations in primary research may be that the sample size could be increased more by surveying under 30 year olds as well. Secondary research was undertaken with the aid of online databases like summon, which is a database for all kinds of academic articles. Also the survey was based online due to its efficiency, because nowadays majority of people have internet connection. 5. Results When asked the question if participants would buy an electronic device which is produced using sustainable business practices rather than one that is not, even if it is more expensive 60% responded with yes. 15 % of participants responded with sometimes and 25% with no. Furthermore the research was refined and responses by household were considered as well, to get more details on consumer behaviour: The bar chart above illustrates that families with under 16 year old children are most likely to invest in sustainable produced goods, while elderly couples are least likely to invest in electronic devices. The most remarkable sign when looking at the bar chart is that all except the elderly couples seem to invest more in electronic devices produced using sustainable practices. Singles seem to care as well with response of 3 votes indicating the value sometimes and 4 indicating yes. Families indicate 7 yes, 0 sometimes and 1 no. As seen families with under 16 year old children respond with 8 yes, 1 sometimes and 4 no. Overall couples, singles and elderly people seem to care less than families and families with under 16 year old children. The results could have been improved by investigating more questions and designing more charts for presenting and interpreting data. One more approach to improve the results would have been to increase the number of participants by giving under 30 year olds the opportunity to participate as well. 6. Conclusion The aim of this report was to investigate consumer behaviour in relation to sustainability. A survey was conducted to gather information and to see how participants would respond. Data collected using this method helped designing bar charts and pie charts, to illustrate percentages of participants voting for a specific answer. As conclusion majority of consumers prefer to invest in goods produced using sustainable business practices rather than products which are not, even if the price is higher. Families seemed to be most likely to invest, while elderly couples seemed not as much interested. Overall consumers tend to invest more in sustainable goods. Secondary research showed that environmental awareness may be a trigger for such decisions. This report also showed that companies investing in sustainability can insure a long run profitability in every sense, be it lowering production costs or driving up consumer and employee satisfaction.

Importance of Accounting Ethics Essay

Ethics is a branch of philosophy that judge human beings on wrongs and rights concerned with the nature of value and the standards by which human actions can be judged .The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles. Accounting is the mechanism that offers information regarding the financial position of the organization or business. This type of information is critical to investors as it provides them with important and detailed information that could turn out to be the determining factor as to their decisions to invest or not to invest in a particular organization. Accounting in business is one of the most important departments. Ethical and professional accounting forms a clear financial image of a business, and allows managers to make informed decisions, keepsinvestors abreast of developments in the business, and keeps the business profitable. (Osanyin, 2008) In accounting, there is the professional ethics that guides the accounting profession. Accountants are expected to adhere to the set ethical standards which are designed to ensure that they behave in a way which is ethical and consistent. For most professional accounting organizations, accountants are certified in order to comply with ethics and they are stripped off their certificates if they fail to abide with ethical codes. Therefore, it is common to find unethical behavior in accounting profession. Some of the forms of unethical behavior in accounting are, Providing erroneous information regarding expenses incurred in business Giving out false information on expenses purposely is unethical. In accounting profession, the accountant should always provide the correct information regarding any expenses as failure to do so make the financial status of the business to be false. This affects the profit and loss reports of the business and consequently affecting the performance of the business in the long run. Exaggerating business revenue In accounting practices, all revenue in the business should be reported correctly as this can hurt investors in the company, the tax payers who may be caught up in governments bail outs and the workers at the company. By showing the correct revenue generated, this reflects the true financial position of the company. Misuse of business funds Accountants access most of the funds in the organization and it is unethical to misuse them. This can lead to the closure of the business and eventually leads to the loss of jobs and investments. Accountants should never misuse business funds and if they use it should be reported in the books of accounts and debited clearly. Some of the reasons why ethics is important in accounting are;- Confidentiality: People need to have confidence in accountants and the services they provide. Failure to do so leads to uncertainty in investors, shareholders and the work force in the organization. If the quality of the accounting is unprofessional this leads to low confidence with the stakeholders of the organization. Professional Competence: Ethics in accounting ensures that the accountants maintain professional knowledge and skills at the level required to ensure that a client or employer receives competent professional service. This is exhibited by acting diligently and in accordance with applicable technical and professional standards when providing professional services. So as to maintain law and regulations governing the accounting profession, accountants should always observe the professional ethics in their profession.